Rose Merope Riddle
by performingfiction
Summary: The night Hermione Jean Granger died, Rose Merope Riddle was found. Voldemort will do everything to keep his daughter from harm but when Rose comes across a redhead she feels she should know, she begins questioning everything she thought she knew. Sucky Summary, good story!
1. Chapter 1

AN: Hello all! I'm finally going to do it! My first Fanfic! YAY! So, that being said, this may be a slow process as I've never done this before and I am in College full time, raising my 15 month old full time and my husband is deployed so I'm handing the house work and whatnot full time. But, keep reviewing and I promise I will keep updating! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, places, creatures, etc. affiliated with it. Please don't sue. :)

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Chapter One:

"Rose." It was a whisper through the darkness, a word that felt both familiar and foreign to her ears. "Rose!" Her eyes snapped open and she sat up only to immediately regret it. "My head" she whispered, falling back into the silk pillows stacked behind her. Everything was so harsh! So bright! And her head was positively throbbing! Slowly she opened her eyes again, making sure to let them adjust properly to the light, before she took stock of her surroundings. She appeared to be lying in a large bed that was practically dripping with black silk. From the pillows to the blanket and sheets. She couldn't remember if she was overly fond of silk or not.

"Rose." She turned her head slightly to see a man standing next to her bed, his face expressionless. For a moment, she wondered who he was. But slowly, her mind began to recognize him and a small smile turned the corners of her mouth up.

"Severus," she said softly as to not further provoke her headache. "What happened?"

"You don't recall?" he asked in that slow drawing voice of his. She frowned at him and sat back up in the bed, trying desperately to remember what had happened to her.

"We were flying," she whispered, remembering the feel of the wind snatching at her hair and cape. "Running…no, chasing something." She looked down at her arms to see long angry scratches covering them. "I fell." She remembered the bite of the branches as she'd crashed through the tree and then the impact with the earth before all had gone black.

"Do you remember who you are?"

Startled, she looked up at Snape with questioning eyes. "Why wouldn't I?"

"It was quite the fall, Rose. You're father wanted me to make sure you were well."

"Father can rest assured. Nothing's wrong. Other than a few scrapes I'm fine." She moved to stand from the bed, to prove her point, when Snape pressed a hand to her shoulder.

"You're name." He asked.

She glared at him, feeling her famous temper snapping into place at his audacity. "I will remind you that you are in _my _chambers and that I do not take kindly to _anyone _placing so much as a _finger _on me." He immediately drew his hand back and she proceeded to stand, however wobbly.

"I am Rose Merope Riddle," she spat, "and I imagine Father is waiting for me." She moved around him to her wardrobe and froze when she caught her reflection. For a moment, just a moment, she thought there had been something…wrong. But as she stared at the straight black hair that fell past her shoulders, the pale white skin, the piercing blue eyes, she relaxed. It must have been a trick of the light. She continued into her wardrobe, changed into a black corset, black slacks, and boots and donned her cape about her shoulders.

"Come on," she said to Snape as she passed, "Mustn't keep daddy waiting."

She hurried through the halls of Malfoy Manor knowing her father would be in the main living room by now, pacing before the fire. As she passed through the dinning room she paused. The Malfoy family had been eating what appeared to be dinner but when she'd entered the room they'd all stopped to stare at her. Quite obviously. The few Death Eaters around the table were at it too and immediately she felt her skin prickle. "What?" she demanded, "What's so interesting that you risk losing your eyes to stare at?"

Bellatrix stood up from the head of the table quickly and sauntered over. "Absolutely nothing, Rose," she said smoothly, taking Rose's arm. "We're just startled to see you up and about so soon. It was a nasty fall."

At her words the table resumed eating, though not convincingly enough for Rose. She drew her arm away from Bella and glared at her. "The people in the Manor seem to forget that I do not like being touched." She said calmly, "Do not make me remind you again." And then she continued out of the dinning room, Snape on her heels. She never did like Bella. The woman was always trying to get to her father by sucking up to her and frankly, she wasn't having any of it. And speaking of Father…

He was right where she expected him to be. Pacing angrily before the fire. She paused to watch him for a moment before clearing her throat. "I suppose this means we didn't get him."

Voldemort spun around to regard her for a moment in what Rose would have thought was surprise. But she was sure her father wasn't capable of that emotion. Whatever it was flickered away to be replaced with a soft smile. "My Black Rose." He whispered. "How kind of Snape to fix you so soon. How are you feeling?"

She stepped into the light from the fire and shrugged. "I've been better. How did he get away?"

Anger came over Voldemort's features as he began pacing again. "The wand," he spat. "They're from the same creature! I need another."

"You'll find one," she assured him and then noticed the man in the shadows on his knees. She turned from the fire and started toward him just as Voldemort noticed where her attention had wavered to.

"Ah yes. The teacher." He drew his wand and pointed at the man who appeared to be unable to move or speak. "A preset," he said to Rose as she stopped before the man. "For you. For the fall."

Ah yes. Rose got hurt, give her a present. Her father was doting, if a little insane. She considered the man kneeling before her for a moment and then recognized him. "Professor," she sneered. "A blood traitor to the core. I never liked your class."

"He's been questioned." Voldemort informed her, eyeing her carefully, "and we have no further use of him. He's yours."

Rose licked her lips as the man eyed her with wide-eyes. She lifted her wand from the holder on her hip and pointed it right between his eyes. "Well, he is a traitor after all. And since we caught him, he's obviously rubbish at being an Auror. What was it you always taught us?" she paused as if pretending to consider and then sneered, "Constant Vigilance. That's it!" She smirked, a look her father was no doubt proud of. "How did that work out for you?" She laughed when the man just stared at her, a look of sorrow in his eyes. "Goodbye Madeye" and with that she said the words, "Avada Kadavra!" and watched the light drain from his eyes.

RMR

It should have been raining. Despite the sober mood of those around him, George couldn't help but feel like the weather should have reflected what they were all feeling. Instead it was a beautiful day, if a little chilly. Only a few clouds in the sky. Still, as often as it rained, it should have today.

Sighing, he pulled his attention from the clear skies and gazed at the empty white casket that stood at the center of their assembly. Rows of matching white chairs had been placed before the casket and in the chairs sat those who had been closest to the deceased. On the front row, where the parents should have been, sat his mother, a handkerchief to her lips to muffle her sobs. His father was beside her, allowing his wife to cling to his hand as he wiped stray tears away with the other. Beside them were George's youngest siblings, Ron with his red face and clenched hands, Ginny who was sobbing just as loud as their mother, and Harry Potter who was disguised as a cousin. He studied Harry for a moment. There were tears in Harry's eyes, but there was anger too. He continuously glanced at Kingsley Shacklbolt and George felt a little dislike for the boy who lived. It hadn't been Kingsley's fault. No one had seen her fall. And no one had been close enough to catch her even if they had.

Behind them, Bill and Fleur sat, their heads bent together as they mourned, and beside them sat Charles. Percy hadn't acknowledged the death except to send a single white rose which Molly had immediately tossed out the window. The Order of the Phoenix was there, save Madeye who had gone missing. They had searched for the fallen for hours, only to give up when they couldn't risk it any longer. A few of the Professors from Hogwarts, namely McGonagall and Hagrid, had come and even a few of the students whose parents had allowed them to brave Death Eaters to honor their friend.

And at the very back of the crowd, a little bit away from them all, George stood with his twin. He glanced at him now and steeled himself for the pain that clenched his heart at the sight. Fred Weasley was a statue. If it wasn't for the gentle rise and fall of his chest, George would have been concerned that Fred was dead. He was ghostly white and had dark bruises beneath his eyes from the days and nights he'd been awake since the accident. He'd lost weight in the week since then, and had only trimmed his hair and shaved because he'd thought it wouldn't do to appear ragged at the funeral. His left hand was resting against his chest, gripping the end of the chain that was about his neck so hard that his knuckles were turning white.

Only George knew what hung at the end of that chain. Only George knew the true depth of Fred's anguish. Fred hadn't told anyone about his relationship, had never gotten the chance and now…now he begged George to leave him to his grieving alone. He didn't want pity from those around him. And, he added softly after George had pestered him two nights ago, who would believe him?

Taking a deep breath, George placed a hand on Fred's shoulder and felt his twin shudder at the unexpected contact. He needed a hug. But Fred felt he deserved to suffer. He hadn't been there for her. And no matter what George said or yelled or begged, Fred ignored him. As the funeral came to a close, and the casket was lowered into the ground and covered, the guests began to make their way inside for food and company in their time of grief. George stayed by his twin long after everyone else had gone inside.

Slowly, Fred made his way up to the now flat ground where the tombstone had been erected in honor of the dead. George stayed a few feet behind, but refused to abandon his twin in his time of need. After there was no more than a foot between Fred and the stone, Fred dropped to his knees. He let go of the chain and George caught the sun glinting off the ring that hung on the end before it rested against Fred's chest.

For a while, they stayed like that. Fred on his knees before the stone of the woman he loved, and George silently supporting him from behind. It wasn't long before the skies finally began to darken. With a trembling hand, Fred reached out and traced the words that had been engraved on the stone.

In Loving Memory of Hermione Jean Granger, the Brightest Witch of All Time.

And as his twin finally broke down and sobbed, the rain came, allowing Fred the privacy he needed to mourn the loss of the woman he had wanted to spend his life with.

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AN: So what do you think? Please Review and let me know and I'll try to update at least once a week if not more! Thank you for reading!

- PF


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Hello again! The second chapter was up and done so I figured I'd post it early. May post the third early as well so keep an eye out for it! Thank you to Elizabeth and pianomouse for Reviewing! And Elizabeth...scary accurate.

Hope you enjoy this next chapter enough to review!

-PF

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Chapter Two:

It had been a little over a week since Rose had dealt with Madeye. She stood now in the large marble entrance to the Ministry of Magic, watching the witches and wizards hurry toward the lifts that would take them to work. She glanced up at the stone fountain that had been destroyed when her father had come here. Something was wrong. No one seemed to recognize her. Her father saw it as an advantage and used it to plant her in places he needed someone to be but it bothered her. They should be running in terror right now. Screaming and begging for their lives. Instead, they barely even glanced her way. Well, that was about to change. Even if her father wanted her to remain in the shadows, she didn't care. She was done hiding. No, it was time the whole world knew just who Rose Merope Riddle really was.

With a slightly insane grin she shot her wand toward the ceiling and whispered the incantation that would bring forth the Dark Mark. _There _were the screams of terror. Chaos broke immediately as everyone began screaming and running away from her and she took a deep satisfied breath as Death Eaters appeared about her, shooting spells in all directions. She heard Bella's cackle and sighed. Good mood gone now. Stupid witch. Sometimes she wished she could just dispose of the trollop. But her father seemed to think Bella had her uses. Sighing she strolled through the chaos, deftly lifting her wand to deflect stray curses as she made her way to the Minister's Office.

Bella stayed right behind her and it made her skin crawl. But she ignored it. For now. When they reached the Minister's office she was surprised to see only a few Aurors which she and Bella took out without so much as a blink of the eye. Then it was just her and the Minister, who was standing behind his desk, wand drawn and ready.

"Minister," she greeted with a smile. "How lovely of you to see us on such short notice."

"You will not be excused for this act of…of treason!" The Minister declared and Rose rolled her eyes.

"Really? And here I was hoping we could all be friends," she cast the first spell silently and watched as the Minister's eyes widened before he was thrown back against the wall. "Now, Minister, I regret to inform you that your usefulness in my Father's kingdom has come to an end. _Sectumsempra"_ as the words left her lips the Minister screamed in pain. She watched as blood began to ooze from his new wounds and he gurgled on blood.

"That a new one?" Bella laughed and drew her own wand. "_Avada…"_

"No," Rose interrupted, "I think I'd rather he die the slow way."

Bella shot her an incredulous look but sheathed her wand all the same. "You won't…get…away with this." The Minister gasped out.

Rose walked over to his desk and shuffled through the papers, listening to the man dying. "I already have." She informed him. Then suddenly a different man appeared in the room. She spun to face him, wand drawn, and was able to immediately deflect the curse sent her way.

"_Crucio!" _she hissed and watched as the tall black man cried out in pain. Even through the pain, he lifted his wand and whispered a spell she couldn't quite hear. White blue smoke seeped from his wand and then shot off out the doors leading to the balcony and through the Ministry up a fireplace.

"No!" she cried releasing him from the curse and before she could blink he Apparated. She rushed to the balcony to see her Death Eaters looking back up at her. "Go you fools!" she cried, "Follow that Patronous it will lead to the others!" One by one they disappeared in smoke, leaving only Rose, Bellatrix and the dead body of the Minister still attached to the wall.

She glared at the body for a moment before her eyes caught something on the desk. A picture of Harry Potter. She frowned as she shoved the stacks of paper off of it and picked the picture up. Her head swam, and she closed her eyes against the sudden pain. An image appeared behind her eyes, a scene with no words. She was standing next to Harry Potter grinning, and he was grinning back at her, holding her hand. She stumbled, opened her eyes and sneered at the picture of the boy who had almost killed her father.

"Rose?" Bella asked cautiously and Rose snapped her gaze up to see the woman fingering her wand.

"Raise a wand against me Bellatrix, and I swear it will be the last thing you ever do." Bella sheathed her wand and took a step forward to see what had caught Rose's attention but Rose destroyed the picture. "Nothing," she assured Bella, "a headache. Go tell father we are finished here. Then see where that Patronus lead the others to." Bella disappeared and Rose glanced at the charred remains of the picture. She'd seen pictures of Harry Potter thousands of times before, but never had that reaction. Something was wrong, but before she could contemplate it, she felt her father calling for her. With a put upon sigh she apparated back to the Manor.

RMR

It has been a little over a week since the Funeral and Fred was worse than ever. It was as if his mind had been placed on autopilot, to respond but never initiate. He still laughed if George said something funny, he still pulled pranks, if George suggested it and implemented it, he still talked with his family if they approached him first, but then his mind would reset to emotionless and he'd continue on as if he'd never done it in the first place. Other than the one time at her funeral, Fred never cried. Despite this, George became concerned that others were starting to notice and while Hermione and Fred had always been friends, he wasn't sure Fred was showing the proper amount of morning for 'just a friend.'

The night before Bill and Fleur's wedding, things got worse. He and George had been sitting in their room at Molly's, after their mother had insisted they stay at the Burrow instead of their apartment. Fred had been starring at a wall, tracing the indent of the ring under his shirt, and George had been working on a product for their shop when Ginny burst in.

"How could you?" she cried, tears in her eyes and for a moment George wondered what prank they had pulled that she was responding to. But his eyes landed on the book in Ginny's hand and everything clicked into place.

"Ginny!" he started rising from his seat but she ignored him to glare at Fred instead.

"How could you not tell me!"

Fred was staring at the book with a strange mix of horror and longing on his face. He got to his feet and reached for it without a word. Ginny let go and took a step back, finally taking in her brother's actions and appearance. "Oh Fred," she whispered and moved to wrap her arms around him but he shied back.

"Where did you get this?" He whispered and Ginny wiped tears from her eyes.

"We were packing Hermione's things." She said quietly. "Putting them in boxes and I came across her Journal. I didn't think she'd mind if I…"

"She would have," he snapped, bringing the Journal to his chest. "She never liked anyone touching it."

For a moment, they all stood in silence. Then Ginny said, "Fred. You should have told us. No, she should have told me. But the rest of the family deserves to know. We could help you cope…"

"Cope?" Fred snapped, eyes blazing. "You can help me cope. How far in the Journal did you get, Ginny? To the part where we told each other we loved each other? To the part where she promised to come back to me before we went to fetch your boyfriend?" He tossed the book on his bed and yanked the necklace out from under his shirt. Ginny gasped and covered her mouth as she took in the ring. "Cope," he spat again. "There is no coping. There is no getting over this. I lost my future _wife _Ginny. Not some friend, or girlfriend. She was going to be my wife." And then he crumbled into the floor, his hands cradling his head as he sobbed.

George was instantly beside him, trying to help his brother who shoved him away. "Get out," Fred whispered and Ginny turned without another word and fled. "You too." Fred added and George recoiled as if he'd been slapped.

"Not leaving," he said defiantly. "You can shut out everyone else but not me, mate. Never me." But he'd leave him to grieve on his own in the floor. He rose, sat back at his desk, and stared blankly at the paper he'd been working on as he tried to endure the sobs. Somehow, he had to help his brother. He just couldn't figure out how.

RMR

The next morning George woke to see Fred sitting on the bed, cradling the Journal. George sighed and stretched before walking over to pat Fred's shoulder. "Another day," he said simply and Fred nodded, gently laying the Journal back on the bed and standing to get dressed himself.

After a moment of dressing in silence, Fred turned to George. "There are things," he began and then stopped, taking a deep breath. "There are things at the end of the Journal I think Harry needs to hear."

George glanced at the Journal and crossed his arms, leaning back against the wall. "Like?"

"Things about…you-know-who. Things she was thinking about. Ways of ending it."

"So tell Ginny." George said. "Let her tell Harry."

Fred nodded and picked the Journal up, sliding it into the pocket of his coat. "Yea." He agreed and shoved their door open without another word. George followed Fred to Ginny's room where he knocked once and waited. Ginny opened the door and took a deep breath, as if bracing herself against her brother. But Fred just reached into his pocket and handed her the journal.

"Fred?" she asked, confused and he shrugged.

"You were her best friend." He answered. "You should have it." He shuffled his feet for a second and then added, "There are things in the end of it that Harry has to know. Just don't…"

She nodded. "I won't let him read it. I won't tell him about you." Fred nodded and moved away from the door but Ginny snatched his arm and pulled him into a hug. "We're here, Fred." She whispered. "Me and George. We're here." Fred nodded and hugged her back for just a moment before heading down the steps to help with the wedding. George smiled at his little sister before following his twin.

The wedding went off without a hitch. And though Fred sat in the back for most of the reception, George enjoyed dancing with a number of pretty girls. After a while, Harry moved to sit beside Fred and George tensed, waiting to see if Ginny had kept her word, but Harry didn't say anything and the two just sat in silence, watching those around them enjoy life. After a while, Ginny pulled Harry out to dance with her but it only lasted one dance before Harry moved off to sit somewhere else. He too was mourning Hermione.

Ron on the other hand seemed to be handling it quite well. He had been dancing with Lavender all night and whatever she'd been saying had had him laughing loudly quite a few times. Just proved to George that Ron never deserved Hermione, and he was grateful she had chosen the right Weasley in the end.

When the patronus arrived, everything was thrown into Chaos. Witches and Wizards alike apparted on the spot, leaving drinks and plates to shatter against the ground in their wake. George rushed to Fred who was already on his feet, wand drawn. Ginny reached Harry and Ron just as the Death Eaters appeared and with a twist the three apparated as well until the only people left were the Weasley family.

"Well well well," a Death Eater intoned as he circled the red-headed family. "Seems we crashed quite the party."

"We've done no wrong here," Arthur said and the Death Eaters laughed.

"Where is Harry Potter?"

No one answered. One of the Death Eaters pointed a wand at Molly and the first asked again. "Where is Harry Potter?"

"We don't know!" George cried and all attention turned to him. "He left days ago."

"And your brother? The one who travels with him?"

"Gone too." Molly stated. "You can search the house. We don't know where they went. They told us they were going to stay for the wedding and then snuck out the other night."

"What about the girl?" One of the Death Eaters asked. "The Mudblood?" George felt Fred tense next to him but the lead Death Eater laughed.

"She won't be bothering us anymore." He laughed. "Hard to be a nuisance when you don't exist." And before Fred or any of them could retaliate the group disappeared. Arthur and Molly let out a sigh together as they turned to survey the destruction left behind.

"They'll be back," Arthur promised. "Often enough to check if the boys have returned."

"Where have they gone?" Molly asked, clutching Arthur's arm. "I didn't seem them."

"Apparted with Ginny," George answered. "Just before the Death Eaters got here."

"Oh," Molly whispered and turned to begin cleaning the mess up with her wand. George glanced at Fred who looked furious. He turned, without a word to his twin, and began helping his mother clean up. Apparently cleaning instead of talking about things was a family trait. George sighed and joined them.

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AN: Review please! Oh! And Fred and Rose meet in the next chapter. Just a spoiler! :)


	3. Chapter 3

AN: Here we are, Chapter Three. :) Hope you all enjoy. Oh and usual Disclaimer about not owning anything but the plot applies.

-PF

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Chapter Three: They Meet

It had been two months since Severus had fixed Rose up. Two months since he'd essentially killed the young woman who had been Hermione Granger. He stared at her replacement now trying desperately to see any trace of the other girl that may have slipped past his spells. But Rose Riddle was exactly as Voldemort had wanted her to be. She was ruthless, emotionless, and at her father's beck and call. She'd created a name for herself not only among the Death Eaters, who had begun to fear her wrath as much as her Father's, but also among the Magical Community. It had become Bellatrix's job to keep an eye on her when she was out. To make sure no one recognized any trace of the girl Rose used to be. To make sure Rose never remembered even a glimpse of her past life. And to make sure no one asked too many questions about where Voldemort's daughter had come from.

She was an enigma to those outside Voldmort's immediate circle and because of it, people feared her even more. Wherever she appeared she dealt death like it was a hobby, finding new disturbing ways to torture people. Severus was concerned about the effects her ruthlessness would have on her past self if her memories ever returned but at this point, he doubted they ever would.

And the change in Voldmort was completely surprising. He _doted _on her. Voldemort found reasons just to give her gifts from, he felt like it to she'd surprised him in her ruthlessness and it pleased him. They had had an argument when people had first begun whispering her name in the streets where Voldemort demanded she remain in the shadows and she had, essentially, told him to shove off. Voldemort had laughed and given her a group of Death Eaters to be at her beck and call. That's when Severus first noticed the fear in Bellatrix's eyes. When everyone realized that Voldemort would let Rose do whatever she wanted. Whether it was slaughter a town of muggles, or torture Death Eaters who had displeased her. No one, not even Bella, was above Rose in Voldemort's eyes. Severus wondered what the Dark Lord would have been like if Rose had truly been raised among them. And worse, he wondered how Rose would have been.

She stood now, gazing out the window at the grounds of Malfoy Manor, twirling a lock of straight black hair around her black nail. She sighed and said, "I'm bored." Several Death Eaters shuddered despite themselves as she turned to regard those in the room. "Draco" she called and the boy appeared moments later.

"Rose," he said nodding to her. She smiled at him as she sauntered over, her boots clanking on the marble floor.

"Let's got to Diagon Alley," she proposed, "Have some fun with the locals." Draco offered her his arm and his most charming smile and Snape rolled his eyes. His godson was trying his best to win favor with the Dark Lord through his daughter and so far, it seemed to be working. At least he was having better success at it than Bellatrix was.

"As my Queen wishes," Draco answered and she threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh Draco," she giggled, "I do love it when you give me a title." She turned to Severus. "Coming?"

"I think not, Rose." He answered with a bow of his head. "I have errands for your father." She looked cross for a moment then shrugged.

"Far be it for me to pull you away from Daddy's work." The two headed for the fireplace, arm in arm, with her Death Eaters following behind when Severus called out.

"Shouldn't you wait for Bellatrix?"

Rose shuddered and turned to raise an eyebrow at Snape. "You can tell the babysitter, and you may call her that, that Draco and I are off having some fun and she's not to wait up." Draco laughed along with her and together they stepped into the flames of the floo.

Severus couldn't help but feel horrible for the unsuspecting people of Diagon Alley. They hadn't a clue what was coming for them.

RMR

The moment Rose and Draco stepped foot into Diagon Alley, the street emptied. People screamed as they hurried into stores and doors slammed shut and locked all around them. As if that would keep them out if they wanted in. Rose sighed as she and Draco walked arm in arm down the long road, glancing in windows as they passed.

"It's so hard to shop when people are terrified of you," she complained only half-heartedly to Draco. He laughed.

"Pick a shop, my dear. Whatever you want is yours," and he lifted her hand to his lips. She smiled as they stopped in front of a dress shop and she turned to the door, unlocking it with her wand. The owner of the shop stepped forward as Rose and Draco stepped in and she motioned for her Death Eaters to amuse themselves outside.

"May….may I help you?" The shop owner, a bald little man, stuttered at them.

"I'd like a dress," she said simply. "And don't fret. Draco intends to pay for it. I have no problem helping along the establishments of pure blood families."

The old man mumbled thanks and rushed around the store to show off his finest dresses as the people who had been shopping cowered in a corner. She contemplated them for a moment, watching their lips whisper silent prays as they clutched their wands.

"Draco," she called as he eyed a long green dress with a plunging neckline.

"Hmm?" he asked without looking away.

"Are any of them mudbloods?" She watched as the group shifted together and wondered if they were protecting someone. Draco finally looked away from the dress and glanced at the group.

"No." He answered and turned to pay for the dress he had obviously decided she should wear.

"Blood traitors?" she asked and he glanced at the group again.

"No." She smiled at them then and gestured to the store.

"My father and I are friends to pure bloods," she said pleasantly, "I promise not a hair on your head will be harmed. Please, continue shopping."

Slowly, a few of the older, braver, wizards moved back into the store and, after a moment, the others joined them. She laughed as she turned back to regard the dress the owner was putting into a bag for them. "It's almost back to normal," she told Draco who raised an eyebrow at her but nodded along. She liked Draco, she decided. Liked that he didn't cower before her, and didn't immediately agree to anything she suggested in fear of her. Course, it could be an act. He could be terrified inside just like the other Death Eaters. But she liked that he didn't let it show, at least.

Draco took her dress, and flung the bag over his shoulder as she took his arm and they left the shop. He handed it off to the first Death Eater they passed who grumbled but took it anyway. After a few more hours, and a few more shops, people began wondering around again. Glancing at the couple more often than not, and giving them and the Death Eaters that followed, a wide berth. But Rose was pleased that she could, just for a moment, shop as if she were everyone else. And secretly, she liked the fact that in an instant, she could have them all back cowering in their shops.

She was forcefully evicted from her thoughts when they rounded the corner and her eyes lay on the brightest shop she'd ever seen. She froze, glaring at the shop that just exuded happiness. Bright colors, laughing clowns, bubbles. The shop stuck out like a soar thumb from the dark grays and browns of the other shops and immediately Rose felt a strong dislike for it.

Draco had tensed beside her and she glanced at him questioningly as he looked down at her with concern. "All right?" he asked hesitantly and she relaxed. He was concerned about her.

"Who owns that establishment?" she asked. Draco took too long answering and she withdrew her arm to put it on her hip. "Well?"

"Blood Traitors." He answered carefully. "No one to concern yourself with."

She raised an eyebrow at that. No one indeed. "Blood traitors," she replied and straightened her shoulders. "They have been allowed to stay too long I think." She turned to the Death Eaters behind her but Draco caught her arm.

"Rose. We were having a nice outing." Her gaze traveled down to his hand on her arm and he immediately removed it. Yes, she liked linking arms with Draco and occasionally she allowed him to kiss her hand or cheek. But he was a pet. Nothing more. And _no one _touched her without her permission. She gave him a cold hard look, his single warning, and then turned completely to her Death Eaters.

"I want the people in that building out here on their knees, wandless, within ten minutes." They moved without pause and she crossed her arms over her chest as she waited.

"Rose, are you sure you're father…"

"Are you questioning me?" she hissed. Draco shook his head and took a step back. "Father is off chasing a legend and until his return I am in charge. Understood?"

"Yes, my Queen."

She turned her attention back to the store as the first of the group came out, struggling. For a moment, she pondered why Draco was so bothered by her punishing the Blood Traitors. But she let it go as the shoppers were led out. The majority of them were children, crying and grasping their parents as they were forced onto their knees before Draco and Rose. She saw a trio of Red-heads leave last, all with their faces down and for a moment, she thought she knew them. Once all of them were on their knees before her, their wands in the hands of the Death Eaters around them, Rose smiled. She glanced behind her to see that all the people who had been pretending to shop were now huddled in doorways watching with fear in their eyes.

"Draco," she called and he stepped closer to her.

"My Queen?" she noticed a few shocked heads look up at her before looking back down at the ground at the title but she ignored them.

"Make sure none of our audience intervenes." Draco nodded and gestured to two of the Death Eaters who moved to stand between Rose and the ones watching from the rest of the alley. "Good." She turned her attention to the group on their knees and clapped, causing a few of them to jump.

"No need to bow your heads," she laughed, "I'm not my father, after all." Slowly, one by one, people began raising their heads to look at her. She saw the recognition flit across most of their faces as the parents held their terrified children a little tighter. As if she'd hurt the children. She huffed.

"Who here is the owner of this establishment?"

No one moved. Figures. She sighed and stepped to the Death Eater who had collected the wands and held her hand out. He gave her one without question and she snapped it, watching to see who flinched at the loss of their wand. She was impressed. No one twitched.

"Well, we'll continue snapping wands until someone speaks up," she informed them and reached for another, snapping it. Then another. Then, as her hand landed on the next one, one of the red-heads leapt to his feet.

"I am!" he cried, his eyes on the wand. "I own this shop."

"Me too!" Cried what appeared to be his twin as he leapt to his feet. "We own it together." There was a moment where they argued with each other but eventually settled to watch her. Well, the second watched her, the first hadn't looked away from the wand. She glanced down at it now and frowned. Ten and three quarters…Vine.

"A very feminine wand for a man," she laughed at him and saw the first twin wince. "What are your names?"

She motioned to the Death Eater closest to them who shoved them forward, through the crowd until they were kneeling before Rose, glaring up at her. They looked familiar. Draco stepped up beside her and she saw the twins recognize who he was. Maybe from school then? She didn't remember them but that was hardly new. She barely remembered any of her classmates.

"Weasley," Draco answered for them.

"Ah, the brothers of the one who follows Potter. What a treat, indeed." The boys glared at her and she smiled back until the first twin, the one who had responded to the wand, suddenly looked thunderstruck. He leapt to his feet so fast she took a step back, surprised.

"Mione?" he whispered, moving to touch her face. Draco was faster. He snatched the man's wrist and shoved him away from her, moving to stand between the two.

"Do not _ever _touch the Queen," he snarled. And the man stumbled back from him with confusion in his eyes.

Rose cocked her head at the exchange. "Mione?" she asked, completely perplexed. "Who the hell is Mione?"

Draco turned to her so fast his coat snapped and took her hand in his. "Rose, darling he's a pure blood traitor and an idiot. Just ignore him."

She yanked her hand from Draco's and moved around him, still holding the wand, to regard the man. "You never said their first names." She informed Draco.

"Fred and George," he indicated to the two of them and Rose noticed George was missing an ear.

"Have a run in with my boys, have you?" she asked but he refused to even look at her. The other twin, on the other hand, was openly staring.

"Who is it you think I am?" she asked after a moment, considering him. When he didn't answer she snatched another wand up and snapped it.

"Someone I lost," he answered, tearing his eyes away from her and staring at the ground. "I was mistaken."

"Clearly." She laughed. She looked at the wand he had responded to one more time and snapped it in half, tossing the pieces at his feet.

"Bring them," she instructed her guard, turning and taking Draco's arm. "We're going to have them in the Dungeon for a bit. See if we can get information about their brother out of them."

"No!" a woman at the back of the crowd, the third redhead, cried, and she too jumped to her feet. A Death Eater snatched her immediately and Rose rolled her eyes.

"Bring the old goat too. The more the merrier." She turned but Draco didn't move. "What?" she snapped and he nodded to the others still kneeling on the ground. "Oh." She sighed. "Release them. And give them back their wands. Well, the ones that weren't snapped." There was a gasp of shock from the crowd but she didn't care.

"Draco," she said as they began walking and she heard her Death Eater's attaching chains to her prisoners. "I think I rather enjoyed this shopping trip." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek but she ignored him, turning on the spot and dragging him with her back to his home.

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AN: Review!

- PF


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Forth Chapter! I said only one chapter a week and look! Four! I really like this story, apparently! Thanks so much for the Reviews! I adore you all so much! The Standard Disclaimer of owning nothing still applies. I hope you all enjoy!

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Chapter Four:

The parlor they arrived in was dark and old, leading Fred to believe it was probably the manor of a pureblood family. Draco's if the way he sauntered into the living room was any indication. He glared at the blonde as Draco paused to hold his arm out to Rose. Fred wasn't sure what had happened to her, but one thing was certain. Rose was Hermione. He didn't care that her hair and eyes were different. He didn't care that she didn't seem to know who he was, or who she was for that matter. He didn't care that she believed she was Voldemort's daughter. That was Hermione. He'd stake his life on it. And he didn't appreciate the way Draco was fawning over her.

As if sensing his twin's anger, George shoved a shoulder into Fred and shook his head. George was right. Now wasn't the time to draw unnecessary attention to themselves. Not when they were in the middle of the hornet's nest. Voldemort could round a corner at any moment and if he recognized them…

But it wasn't Voldemort who rounded the corner from the dinning room into the living room. It was Bellatrix Lestrange and a man Fred had never seen. They were laughing together and the man was obviously drunk. They stepped into the light of the living room and caught sight of Rose. The reaction was immediate. Bellatrix straightened, all mirth leaving her expression, and the man glowered. Draco, surprisingly, released Rose's arm and took a step to the side. Even the Death Eaters guarding Fred, George and Molly seemed to tense.

"Rose," Bellatrix began. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and raised a black thin eyebrow. "Apparently." She drawled. "I can see why you would imagine Draco and I were in the wine cupboard." Draco snickered but straightened when Rose shot him a dark look.

"You're not supposed to wander off." Bellatrix said, taking a step toward Rose. "The Dark Lord…"

"Is not here" Rose snapped, "and I'm sure, if I were to tell him you weren't around when I left, he may find that far more offensive than my having left without you."

For a moment, Fred swore he saw fear etched across Bellatrix Lestrange's face. Fear of Voldemort? He wondered.

"How dare you speak to my wife that way!" The man, who Fred was absolutely sure was drunk now, cried. The Death Eaters guarding them drew in a deep breath together as Rose leveled her icy glare on him.

"How dare _I_?" She hissed and even Bellatrix realized the danger her husband was in. "How dare I." She took a step toward him and drew her wand from her robes. With a flick of her wand the man flew back against the wall and remained stuck there, the bottle he'd been holding shattered against the ground. "I dare," she spat, "because I am your Queen. I can do whatever I wish to whomever I wish and there is no one who can utter a syllable against me."

"It was a mistake, Rose!" Bellatrix said but Rose silently shot a spell in her direction that had Bellatrix screaming. A second later it stopped and Bellatrix gasped, "My Queen!"

"A mistake it may have been," Rose said, "But I do not grant second chances." And she flicked her wand at the man whose feet caught on fire. He screamed as the flames slowly began to climb up his legs.

"No!" Bellatrix cried and drew her own wand, but instead of saving her husband, she pointed it at the death mark on her arm. Immediately all the Death Eaters in the room fell to one knee, including Draco. The Death Eaters guarding Fred and his family shoved them to their knees as a gust of wind brought in smoke that dissolved into the Dark Lord himself.

Molly gasped behind Fred but he couldn't look away to comfort his mother. Not when the woman he loved was standing so close to his worst nightmare. _Hermione. _His lips formed the word but he couldn't say it. Not faced with the cruel being his beautiful fiancé had become.

Rose turned to regard Voldemort with a small smile. "Father." She stated. Voldemort took in the scene in one look and then turned to Bellatrix, who was kneeling before him. "Why did you summon me?" he demanded, and his voice sent chills down Fred's spine.

"He's my husband," Rose said, indicating the man who was on fire from his thighs down now. His mouth was open in a scream but Rose had evidently cursed him into silence. No sound came out. Voldemort considered the man on the wall for a moment then looked at Rose.

"How have you stopped the flames?" He asked, intrigued.

"I haven't," she replied with a giddy smile. "I've just slowed them down. Wouldn't want him to die without feeling every part of his body burn off first."

Fred felt sick. The way she dismissed the man's agony, the smile at having thought of such a cruel death…he was going to be sick. He turned his head away and caught the wide-eyed horror on his twin's face. No. That creature wasn't Hermione. But his Hermione was in there somewhere. He'd get her out.

"Ingenious." Voldemort said simply.

"Sire," Bellatrix began. "I demand payment for the death of my husband! One of her prisoners!" She was on her feet and walking toward the group before Voldemort's hand lifted and she froze.

"Demand?" he asked, the evil in his eye reflected in Rose's as they turned to face her together. Voldemort glanced at Fred and George and Molly, before looking down at Rose. "You're prisoners?"

"We'll have so much fun," Roes laughed.

"No," Voldemort said, turning back to Bellatrix. "You will not touch Rose's things. And for your _demand _I will not save your husband nor lessen his anguish. You are lucky I don't take your life with his."

"_Crucio," _Rose whispered and suddenly Bellatrix was on the ground, screaming in agony. Voldemort kissed the top of Rose's head.

"Don't kill her yet." He said simply and disappeared.

It was a long long time before anyone dare move. Draco got to his feet and watched as his Aunt screamed in pain as the other Death Eaters got to their feet as well. Only when the body on the wall had completely turned to a pile of ash, did Rose let up from Bellatrix. She left the whimpering body of one of Voldemort's deadliest servants on the cold floor, inches away from the ashes of her husband.

Sliding her wand back into its holster, she turned to regard her prisoners. "To the dungeon then." She said simply. "I've had my fill of torture for the moment. Perhaps after dinner."

Draco took a step toward her to put his arm around her but Rose stopped him with an icy look. "The members of this family grow too presumptuous." She snarled. "This is _my _kingdom. My Father's kingdom. You are servants we allow to live simply because we like being _served_. Do not over extend your usefulness. Servants can be replaced." And she stormed from the room without another word, leaving Draco looking stunned. He turned to his aunt just as the Death Eaters led the prisoners from the room.

Once the Death Eaters had locked them in the cell, their handcuffs disappeared. George turned to their mother instantly, checking for injuries but she shooed him away. They both turned to Fred, who was clutching the cell bars so hard his knuckles were white. "Fred," George whispered, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"It's Hermione." He whispered. "She's alive."

"That's _not _Mione," George spat. "That is evil incarnate. Voldemort's spawn. Even if she does resemble Hermione."

"She doesn't _resemble _her! She is Hermione!" Fred cried turning to glare at his twin. "I don't know what they've done to her but that's Hermione!"

"Fred," George began but Fred interrupted him.

"Don't Fred me I know my own Fiancé!" And then he remembered his mother was in the cell with them. He turned to her with a look of horror on his face as she stared, shocked, at him. "Mum…" he began.

"Fiancé?" she whispered. "You were engaged. To Hermione?" She slowly lowered herself down onto a stone. "Oh Lord," she whispered as George rushed to her side to take her hand.

"We didn't tell anyone," Fred said sadly, leaning back against the stone behind him. "She didn't want anyone to know. Not with Ron being in love with her. She said being at war wasn't the time to drive a wedge between family members. She didn't want Ron to be like Percy."

"Ron wouldn't do that," Molly snapped and then her gaze softened. "Yes. He would. She was always so smart. So considerate." She looked up at Fred then and her gaze hardened, "But George is right. That creature is not Hermione."

"That's not entire true." An old voice called making all three of them jump. They turned to the back of the cell they were in to see an aging Wizard sitting on the floor. He slowly got to his feet and came into the torch light and they were shocked to see Olivander.

"Olivander!" Molly cried getting to her feet and leading the too skinny Wizard to the stone she'd been on. "Good Lord what happened?"

"Voldemort took me hostage a long time ago." He told them. "Before you're fiancé was brought in," He added to Fred. "I've been here long enough, heard enough whispers, to have a general idea of what's happening."

"What did they want you for?" George asked at the same time Fred said, "What did they do to her?"

Olivander took a deep breath. "Voldemort is looking for a powerful wand that he felt I could give him information on. I'm ashamed to say I just might have. But that's not important anymore. There's nothing we can do about it in this dungeon at least. You're girl is a different story entirely."

He took another deep shaky breath, and began. "From what I understand, they took Hermione when they came to get Potter. When they found her, they removed all of her memories and replaced them with the ones she has now. They call her Rose Merope Riddle, Vodlemort's daughter. But she's not. They are false memories. The violence, the lack of morals the…the evil. It was all placed into her mind."

"Hermione," Fred whispered and sagged down the wall to sit on the floor.

"But she doesn't look like Hermione."

"A simple altering spell to color her eyes blue, straighten her hair, dye it black. All child's play. The real spellwork went into creating the personality and memories."

"How do we get her old memories back?" Fred asked.

"You can't." The voice wasn't Olivander's and the three turned to the cell door to see Severus Snape standing beyond the cage.

"Severus," Molly gasped and Fred and George were stunned to see the relief on her face. "Get us out."

"I can't." Severus answered. "Only a select few of the Order know I didn't kill Dumbledore and no one can know I am not on his side. If I release you, I'm the first suspect, and the Order losses its mole."

"You're a spy!" George cried only to immediately be shushed by the adults. "You're a spy?" he asked quieter.

"Of course." Severus drawled. "Dumbledore told you to trust me."

"But what about Hermione?" Fred asked, getting to his feet.

"Hermione's memories have to come back on their own. No spell can undo what has been done."

"How do you know?" Fred demanded.

"Because I'm the one who altered her memory." Molly gasped in horror as Fred slammed his fist against the cage.

"You did this!" he cried but George yanked him away from the door before he damaged his hand.

"Be quiet." Severus hissed. "You make enough noise and someone's going to come down here wondering what happened."

"How do we get her to remember?" Molly asked, sensing where Severus was going.

"I don't know. I had to be perfect changing her memories because the Dark Lord checked my work. There couldn't be a single flaw or he'd kill both of us. So there isn't. But if anyone can get her to remember, it would be her fiancé."

"Sept you haven't been acting like her fiancé." George whispered, eyes going wide. "She wouldn't know you because you've been mourning her. You're not like the man she fell in love with."

Before Fred could defend himself Molly added, "Which is understandable. But you have to start acting like yourself again or you'll lose her forever."

"If we get her memories back, will her personality change?" Fred asked and Snape nodded.

"I added a fail safe. If she ever remembers, truly remembers, she'll go back to normal. But she'll have the memories as Rose to contend with."

Fred clenched his fists. That would destroy her. All the lives she'd taken. But at least he'd have her back. At least he'd be there to help her get through it. "Okay." He stated at last. "We'll try it. Not like we have anything better to do, sitting in a dungeon and all."

"Why is You-Know-Who interested in Hermione anyway?" George asked.

"Because she's his daughter."

"No, I meant before you changed her. Why did he want her memories to be changed in the first place? Why not just kill her?"

Severus looked Fred right in the eye and repeated, "Because Hermione Jean Granger _is _his daughter."

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AN: Review? Please?


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thank you all for the Reviews! They keep my writing! Here's another chapter! Hope you enjoy! Oh and I don't own anything at all so please don't sue. This goes for the rest of the story!

-PF

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Chapter Five

She was walking through the hallways of Hogwarts, but something was wrong. Her head was down, watching the stone pass beneath her feet, and she was hunched over the book she was clutching to her chest. Scoffing she tried to straighter her shoulders and hold her head high but nothing happened. She began to panic when she tried again and again but her body continued its meek trek down the hallway that, come to think of it, she'd never traversed in her time at Hogwarts. Before she could contemplate it more a hand seized her upper arm and drew her behind a tapestry into a hidden room she hadn't known was there. Her body gasped as the book slipped from her grasp and suddenly lips were on her own, making her moan and fist her hand in the short hair at the back of someone's head.

She was repulsed to be this close to someone but she couldn't make her body pull away. In fact, she felt her breathing increase, felt her heart pound in her chest as her body finally gasped and pulled away enough to look up into the eyes of a man she vaguely recognized. There was a smirk on his now plump lips and a reached down, without breaking eye contact, to pick up the book she…no _her body _had dropped and give it back to her.

"What are you doing here?" her body demanded in her voice. But there was no snark, no anger, no hint that being touched without her permission had even so much as concerned her, nevertheless enraged her. There was a small smile turning her lips up and she sounded happy.

"I couldn't stay away," he replied capturing her lips once more. His hands ran up and down her sides and she shivered as she pressed against him.

"You could get in trouble," she managed to gasp out between kisses.

"What are they going to do?" he replied, tugging her shirt out from where it was tucked into her skirt. "Expel me?"

She laughed with him as she set the book down and shrugged out of her robe before returning her fingers to his shirt and unbuttoning them as fast as she could. "How long do we have?" she whispered as he nipped his way down her neck.

"Until one of my brothers stumble on us…or a student…or a teacher." He frowned as he considered all of the people who could actually find them and then shrugged. "Best not to worry about it."

She shook her head as he shimmied out of her skirt and reached for his zipper with a moaned, "Fred," and then…Rose sat up in bed, shaking.

She stared for a long moment, her arms wrapped around her shoulders as her breathing slowed. She moved her arms and legs to test that she did, indeed, have control of her body before finally relaxing back against her pillows. A dream. It had been a dream. But so life like. She'd never had a dream like that and, other than the small kisses she allowed Draco to bestow on her cheek and hands, she'd never had relations with a man.

She was stunned to find her fingertips touching her lips and scowled as she yanked her arm down. Well there was only one thing for it. She'd just have to make a trip down to the dungeons and torture the prisoners for a while. That would make her feel better. She swung out of bed and snatched up her wand, sheathing it in the leg sheath she always wore on her thigh before heading down the halls.

She didn't need a spell, nor charm, nor torch to light her path to the dungeons. She'd traversed it many times in daylight and by moonlight and knew it almost as well as she knew the back of her hand. Her passage was undisturbed as all but the guards were sleeping at his hour and, before she knew it she was shoving open the door that led down to the dungeon and dismissing the Death Eaters guarding it.

"My Queen," one said as he passed and she paused, "Wormtail will be replacing us this morning."

"Not now." She snapped. "He will wait for me in the parlor and I will inform him when he is to take up his guard. I am not to be disturbed by anyone. Or you will pay the punishment." He stiffened and then nodded and she had the distinct impression that he would be spending his morning guarding the door she'd just passed through. Good.

They were sleeping when she reached the cell and she slammed a hand against it to wake them. The twins leapt to their feet and looked to be reaching for wands before they realized they didn't have one. Then they turned to help their mother up but she interrupted them. "Leave her. I have no use for the elderly. She might as well stay relaxed."

They stared at her a moment as the old woman sat up and moved closer to Olivander. The twins glanced at them for a moment and then turned to face her directly. "What can we do for you, tormenter?" the ear-less one said.

She blinked. What was she going to do? She'd come down to torture them but, faced with them, she wasn't sure what she was doing. There was no basis for torture at the moment and, though that had never stopped her before, she found herself desperate to find one. "Where is Harry Potter?" Ah, the old standbye. She was really not on her game tonight.

"We don't know," Earless said again. But his twin was staring at her and looked to be contemplating something. She glanced down and almost blushed as she realized she was still in her nightgown. Her black, lacy, very revealing nightgown that presented her chest nicely before falling to just whisper across the floor. It was also slightly see-through. She lifted her head to glare at him but was slightly stunned at the look in his eye. Lust. Pure, undeniable lust. But what really bothered her was, though she'd never been with a man before, she'd seen it before. In his eyes.

She gasped and took a step back as her eyes swept over him. The hair was slightly longer, but not much and he looked leaner, as if he hadn't eaten in a while. Black circles were under his eyes and the joy and youth he had practically oozed in her dream was almost completely gone. It was several moments before she realized she had been staring, and he had been staring back, completely uninterrupted. She scowled and reached down to yank her wand out of its holster.

"Why do you protect him?" she demanded, ignoring the odd feelings washing through her body. It felt like it did in the dream. As if the body belonged to someone else who recognized him and his need and wanted to assist in any way possible. She took a deep calming breath as she awaited an answer. She had control of her body. This was just left over from the nightmare.

"He looks better than Moldy Shorts. Figured we'd go with the more attractive mascot." She blinked and turned her full attention to Earless, who had spoken. He was smirking at her, but hesitantly, as if not sure how she'd take it. Well, it was certainly a first. Most prisoners whimpered and begged or gave her whatever information they thought she wanted. But humor?

"You'd do well to remember you are in the presence of Lord Voldemort's heir. It would behoove you to remain respectful to both he and I. Now, where is Potter?"

"How's that work then?" her heart fluttered at the voice and she seethed before turning to regard the twin. _Fred _a voice in her head whispered but she ignored it. She would not give life to a nightmare.

"How does what work?" she demanded, acutely aware that he was regarding her with familiarity.

"You being Voldemort's daughter. I didn't think he could love."

She frowned. "He loved my mother," she insisted, though it was something she had had to insist to too many people over the years she was growing up.

"Then where is she? Still in Azkaban?"

"Dead," she spat. "Killed by your precious order the night I was born."

"Anasia." The old woman whispered, her eyes widening.

"Do not _dare _speak her name!" Rose cried and the twins leapt between her and their mother before she could even think of a spell to cast. "You know _nothing_" she added.

"I was there that night, child." The woman went on, standing and moving to lean against a wall. "I was there the night the order finally took down your mother."

Rose wanted to kill the woman right then and there, but she refrained, barely. No one had ever told her the story. No one had been aloud to talk about how Voldemort's true Queen had passed. Just that the order had killed her.

"She was as evil as they come," the woman told her, looking her right in the eye. "Much like yourself. Ruthless, coldblooded, and bloodthirsty. And he _unleashed _her on the world. Like he has you."

"I am aware of my mother's glory," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"What you are not aware of is that you're father abandoned her in her time of need. Just as he will abandon you."

Anger surged up through Rose and she cried, "Lies!"

"You had been born only an hour before we found your house. The Dark One had taken the enchantments from it that were to protect you both and disappeared. You're mother was weak from childbirth, and I'm ashamed to say we took the advantage offered and destroyed the woman who had killed so many."

"That's a lie! Snape was there! He took me and protected me until Father could arrive. He did care! He was just too late."

"Is that what they told you?" she whispered and Rose recoiled.

"You know nothing!"

"I know that you're life is full of lies. It's why you haven't hurt any of us."

She blinked as the boys drew in deep breaths together, apparently not liking that their mother had drawn attention to that detail. Surely she was wrong? She searched her memory and found that no, other than snapping their wands, she'd down nothing to them. That would be changed. She lifted her wand but the woman continued.

"You haven't, because a part of you remembers. A part of you remembers the truth within their lies. And rebels against what you have done and who you have become."

"You're an old fool," she said softly. "I wasn't going to kill you."

"Don't you ever wonder? Why is it that no one knew who you were? Why is it that those closest to your father are so concerned with who you talk to? That, despite being as powerful as you are, they insist you have someone to watch you?"

"They baby sit me because father worries about me."

"About you? Or does he worry that someone might make you remember?"

Rose eyes unwillingly darted to the twin who straightened as he met her gaze. "You are remembering," he whispered and took a step toward her. "What did you remember?"

"Nothing!" she spat and flung a curse at him without even thinking. It knocked him off his feet but hardly more and he had the audacity to laugh at her.

"It's true!" He gasped as he got back to his feet. "She's right. You're too smart not to start questioning all that is wrong around you. They didn't call you the brightest witch of our age for nothing, Mione."

The nickname stung at something deep in her heart and she gasped and then snarled at him. "I could kill you where you stand."

"But you won't," he insisted. "because somewhere deep down in your black soul, my fiancé remembers me."

She fired the curse without remorse and watched as the green light engulfed the older man's body before he fell to the floor, dead.

"Olivander!" Molly screamed and she and Earless rushed to his side. But it was stupid. She'd killed him.

"Do not test me any longer," she spat at the twin who hadn't moved. Shock written across his features. "I am not this girl you believe I am. I am a Queen, and rightful so. You're mother was a part of the group who murdered mine and I promise you, I will not let her off as easily as the old man got. She will suffer for every second I had to suffer without my mother and then suffer more for the audacity you have displayed here today. You will regret this."

She spun from the cage and began stalking up the stairs as he whispered, "I won't give up." It wasn't until much later, when Wormtail had taken up the guard and removed the body, and she'd been sitting on the veranda overlooking the garden Draco's mother kept, that she realized in the moment after killing the old man, she'd remembered Molly's name.

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AN: Ahh! I killed Olivander! Not to worry, I have plans to ensure his significant contribution to furthering the plot to kill Voldemort is dealt with. And, as a spoiler to those who Review (and in thanks for them) Harry, Ron and Jenny are in the next chapter! :) Please Review! And I hope you enjoyed! Until the next chapter!

- PF


	6. Chapter 6

AN: Come on guys, review please! I'm throwing another chapter up as incentive. :) Enjoy! And as promised, Harry, Jenny and Ron are in this one.

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Chapter Six

Turmoil. Her thoughts were in turmoil. The prisoners' words were getting to her. She should just shrug it off. They were _trying _to get to her after all. Trying to make her _remember_. Selfish is what it was. They wanted to force her to become this woman they had lost. Well too bad. She knew exactly who she was! She was Rose Merope Riddle! Except…except she'd remembered the woman's name. And she'd dreamed about the twin.

She surged to her feet and headed out into the manor, searching for someone to hurt. She came across Draco instead, who was practically being groped by Pansy Parkenson. "I do not recall inviting you to visit," she drawled and both of them snapped their heads up to look at her. Rose expected to feel jealous, even angry, that another woman was touching Draco, or even that he seemed to enjoy her touching him. But she didn't feel anything other than annoyed at the pug faced girl. Pug-faced. Ha!

"Just who are you supposed to be?" Pansy asked, glaring at her.

"Pansy, you've met the Queen before. In school. _Remember_." He stressed the word and Pansy's eyes widened before she held out a hesitant hand to Rose. Rose sneered at it.

"I have need of you, Draco. Get rid of your pet and attend to me when it's gone." She turned toward the parlor, ignoring the outrage from the ugly girl and the whispers from Draco. Why hadn't Pansy remembered her? Everyone in Slytherin had practically worshipped her while she was in school. She remembered it well.

_You're too smart not to question all that is wrong around you. _

She shook her head and began pacing before the fire her father was so found of. When Draco entered, alone, she turned to him and he took a step back. She wondered, for a moment, what he was seeing in her eyes that had concerned him. "Did I always look like this?" she asked after a moment's hesitation.

Draco visible gulped. "Rose, whatever do you mean?"

He knew something. He was only ever nervous before her when she was displaying power. Until now, he'd been at ease with her when she wasn't. "What do you know?" Her shoulder's straightened and she rose to her full height. She was impressed when he didn't take another step back.

"Where is this coming from? Why would you have looked different than you do?"

"Why didn't Pansy recognize me?" She asked instead. He tensed again and she could see him racking his brain for an excuse. "Don't bother," she spat. "You're a horrible liar. It makes sense doesn't it? No one recognizes me now because I looked different before."

Draco chose to finally shrug, apparently not seeing anyway out of the truth. "You used to have curly hair," he offered. "Really curly. You hated it though. So you changed it to this. Right after your father returned. Is this left over from the accident?"

The accident. She lifted a hand to the back of her head unconsciously as she pondered this new information. It would explain why Pansy hadn't recognized her immediately. She'd changed her hair after Hogwarts, when her father had returned. But why didn't _she _remember it. "Has someone tampered with my memory?" She demanded, taking a step toward him.

"Who here has the power to do that, my Queen? It must be left over from the fall."

Who in deed. Severus could. Before she could demand to know where Snape was the room was filled with a high scream she'd heard many times before and her father appeared, snarling and spitting as he flung whatever he'd been holding into the flames. Immediately every Death Eater in the building appeared in the room, dropping to one knee and Rose turned to watch her father as he began pacing.

"How goes the search, Father?" she asked and he stopped, surprised, before regarding her.

"Fruitless," he spat. "Still. I am no closer to either Potter or my prize." He resumed pacing angrily as Snape stepped up to address him.

"Perhaps we should send out the snatchers. They are eager for money. Release the names of blood-traitors and Muggle-born witches and wizards and let the Snatchers catch them for us. Maybe one of them will be lucky and catch Potter."

Voldemort paused and turned to face Snape full on. "Fine." He said after a moment. "Release the lists. And offer whatever reward you think will entice them. I can't be bothered with it."

Rose watched as Snape slipped into the hall and, with a glance at her father, followed him. He wasn't getting away that soon! She caught him after he'd released owls carrying the lists and he turned from the window to stare down at her. "You're troubled," he said calmly, "have the prisoners said something to upset you?"

"Odd, that you should jump to that conclusion first," she answered, leaning back against the wall. "They suggest my memory may have been tampered with. I find they may be right."

"Oh?" he asked, completely unconcerned. She almost stamped her foot in frustration. Almost.

"Pansy Parkinson was here today. She didn't remember me until after prompting from Draco. After the fall, it took so long for people to recognize me, I wondered why. Draco tells me I changed my hair from curly to straight. Apparently it bothered me."

"You hated it," Snape agreed carefully.

"I have no memory of ever disliking my hair. Nor changing it. Draco thinks it could be left over from the accident. But you said I was fine. Then I thought, maybe someone had tampered with my memory. But it's such an insignificant detail, why bother? What did it matter if I remembered changing my hair or not?"

She was surprised to see a small smile twitch at the bottom of his lips. It was gone almost as soon as it had appeared. "Draco is probably right. I imagine the memory will return with time." He stepped forward to move past her and she let him get to the door before she addressed him again.

"Why do the prisoners believe I am someone else? Not just that I used to look different. But I used to _be _different."

He didn't so much as flinch as he turned to raise an eyebrow at her. "I have no idea." He answered and then turned and continued out of the room. She screamed out her frustration and shattered most of the vases in the room before finally calming enough to leave herself. They were keeping things from her. All of them. And she'd figure it out if it were the last thing she did!

RMR

After the lists were released, prisoners began arriving almost steadily. First was Luna Lovegood, who took one look at Fred and said simply, "She'll remember." They had all been stunned but she wouldn't elaborate or even acknowledge that she'd said it. Then Dean Thomas had been captured, with news that the Death Eaters had tried attacking Harry, Ron and Jenny at the Lovegood residence but they had slipped away. There had also been an incident at the Ministry where, again, they had escaped but no one knew why they'd been there or what they had done.

"No wonder no ones been down here to torture us," Fred laughed, "they've got their hands full with Harry and Jenny and Ron."

Molly was ringing her hands in the corner, trying to get information about her children and husband out of any of the prisoners who were brought in. Only they five remained constant. Molly, the twins, Luna and Dean. Others came in but either died of injuries the five couldn't heal in time or were drug out for torture for information and died then. The snatchers were getting reckless, and more and more of the prisoners had been captured with such force that they didn't survive.

They'd gone two days straight without food, and almost a month without seeing Rose or any other torturer if the nicks in the wall they'd been keeping were any judge. They were all week, dehydrated, and starving. But no matter how loud they yelled. No one ever appeared.

It was the morning of the third day without food when the door to the dungeon opened and the smell of food wafted to them. They were all on their feet in minutes, reaching through the bars for the jugs of water offered them by masked Death Eaters. The tray was slid under the cage and they picked up the bowls of soup and bread without complaint. They were so intent on the food and drink, they didn't realize the Death Eaters were not alone until she spoke.

"How long have you been without food?"

Fred nearly dropped his bowl in surprise. He looked over at the gate and was surprised by the woman standing there. Her blue eyes looked dull, and her hair was slightly frizzy. She had dark circles under her eyes and looked to have lost weight she couldn't afford to lose to begin with. "Three days," Molly answered for them. Fred couldn't seem to dislodge the lump in his throat to respond, or even continue eating.

She leaned against the wall and made no move to exit when the other Death Eaters did. She just watched them all silently as they ate. Finally, when they had all finished and passed the tray back through the entrance, which she sealed with a wave of her hand, they turned their attention completely to her.

"How goes the hunt for our fearless leader?" George asked, sitting down on the stone next to Dean who looked like his eyes were bugging out of his head. Ah, he'd recognized her as well.

"Fruitless" she whispered, her eyes on Fred. "You're siblings have proved much harder to capture than you were."

"We weren't exactly hiding," George pointed out but she didn't respond. Fred wished there was more light in the blasted dungeon. Something was off with her.

"Did you know me?" she asked Dean suddenly, "at Hogwarts? Do you recall the few years I spent there?"

Dean looked at them for help but the boys didn't know what to offer him. "Aye," he said at last.

She nodded. "There seem to be many who remember me from Hogwarts. Just not as I am."

Fred was shocked. Why was she telling them this? And what was she talking about? "The prisoners?" he asked slowly and she nodded. Some of them were recognizing her. And if they recognized her they would have called her Hermione. Too many of them and she'd get suspicious.

"This woman that you believe I am," she said slowly, turning her head back to Fred. "Who was she?"

Hope. His entire chest hurt with it. He swallowed down the giddy feeling he had and searched for a way to describe the woman he loved. "Brilliant." He said after a moment.

"Brightest Witch of our Age," Dean added and Fred glanced at him with a nod, appreciating the help.

"You said that before," she murmured. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the stone. She looked exhausted. He fought the urge to step closer to her. To comfort her. She wasn't Hermione. Not yet.

"She was kind to everyone she met," Lune said in that odd voice of hers, all of them watching for the anger that usual came with mentioning the woman they believed her to be. If she hadn't been standing upright, he might think her asleep for as calm as she was.

"She started this group to free House-elves," George said with affection in his voice.

"Spew!" Dean laughed.

"S.P.E.W." Rose whispered and they all drew in a deep breath together. But she didn't move, and she didn't open her eyes.

"She had curly brown hair, and wisdom in her eyes long beyond her youth," Molly said quietly. "Wouldn't hurt a fly and always willing to help."

"And brave," Luna added.

"Aye, she battled old Moldy Shorts with Harry all…"

Her eyes snapped open and she shoved off the wall, bringing her wand to bear on Dean. Too far. They all took a step back as she glared at him. "I am not this person." She snapped. But she didn't sound half as sure as she had a month ago. "Whoever that person was is dead."

"Then why are you here?" Fred asked, "We're hardly the kind of company you like. We prefer _not _torturing people."

Her eyes met his and he saw confusion and hurt in their depths. So much despair. She was warring with herself then. Remembering enough to question but clinging to the lies those around her had told her. That's what had been hounding her.

"How do you know Voldemort took down the protective wards before he left the house that night?" she asked quietly and all eyes turned to Molly.

"We'd been searching for it through the entire war. Suddenly, it just appeared. We were mere blocks away from it. We felt, at the time, it had been pure luck. But later we came to believe that perhaps he had abandoned the woman and child."

She lowered her wand and faced Molly completely. "What happened to the baby?" she whispered.

Molly took a deep breath and explained gently, "By the time I arrived, long behind the others, Dumbledore had you." At her glare, she amended, "the baby. He said he'd taken her from Snape who was worried that Voldemort would kill her after the way he'd abandoned them both. Something having to do with a prophecy. Dumbledore took her and gave her to a family who couldn't have children of their own. I thought they were wizards but I know now they were Muggles."

"Why let Snape live?" she asked. "When you're people murdered my mother. Why let Snape live?"

"You'd have to have asked Dumbeldore," she said. "No one told me." It was a lie and they all knew it, but they couldn't tell her Snape was a traitor until they knew where she stood.

"Snape raised me," she said quietly, but there was no malice or anger behind the words. They were almost emotionless. "I grew up with him in his home in London, visited often by Andromeda and her daughter Tonks and Draco and his parents. I was in Slitherin in Hogwarts until my father returned in my forth year when he gathered me up and brought me back here to be at his side."

"Why don't you believe it?" Molly asked, just as quietly.

"No one remembers me from school," Rose answered her, never looking at the others in the cell. "Draco's memories of me are completely sealed off and he doesn't have that kind of power. Prisoners seem to believe I am this woman you say I am and beg me for their lives, positive that I will come to their aid and horrified when I don't."

She took a step toward the bars, toward Molly and it took Fred a moment to realize she was connecting with the older woman. She always had thought of Molly as a mother and it pleased him greatly. She shrugged out of her cloak and whispered, _"Lumos" _they all gasped as her arms were revealed, blue and purple and black in places with lines tracing through the bruising. It was spell work if they'd ever seen it. "I don't have memories of him hurting me before," she whispered, eyes wide and staring at Molly.

"My poor child," Molly gasped, her hands reaching to wrap around the bars as close as she could get to Rose. "What has he done to you?"

"That's what I want to know," Rose said darkly and drew the robe back on.

"I'm not this woman," she said quietly. "I only have flashes here and there of things I've done. Dreams with people in them I don't recognize and yet _know._ But I am his daughter. You've confirmed that. So where do the lies begin?" She didn't wait for an answer. Instead she turned and walked away. 

RMR

Rose was standing in the large empty ball room, staring at a painting of Draco and his family. Her wand was dangling from her finger tips. She was so tired. She'd been running rampant trying to appease her father and help in anyway she could only to have him lash out at her when she failed to produce Potter, who he had made her sole responsibility while he searched for the Elder Wand. Every time Potter and his friends were sighted, they slipped through their fingers before she could even arrive. Frustrating wasn't even the word for it.

But he had become violent toward her. Never where anyone could see them. But often enough that she'd began to desperately search out ways to never be alone with him. Snape had noticed, and had silently been staying when it was just the two of them. During those times, he only lashed out verbally at her, before kissing the top of her head and sending her away. But when they were alone, and Snape no where to be found… she shivered involuntarily. He'd turned her into this monster, and now she wasn't good enough for him.

And the dreams. She'd dreamed of Fred most nights now. Dreams of dates in Hogsmead and Diagon Alley. Of sneaking into his room when they lived in the same house during the summers. Of when he first told her he loved her. The first dream she had where she didn't out right fight it, she'd been crying in it. Sitting on the steps to Hogwarts in a pink dress. She was pretty sure someone had been nasty to her at the Yule Ball. She could hear the music still coming from the ballroom. But, for whatever reason, she was outside, crying on the stairs.

She remembered the Yule Ball. Remembered dancing every dance with Draco. Remembered the feeling of joy she had had at the thought that soon her father would be returning. And yet, when she thought of her memories as Rose, she never felt the emotions attached to them. Not the way she felt longing whenever she remembered her dreams about Fred.

The woman from her dreams looked up as footsteps approached and wiped her eyes hastily as Fred came around the corner, his hair much longer than Rose had ever seen it in any of the dreams. He'd frowned at her when she'd tried to smile and asked her quietly, "What did he do?"

She'd nearly laughed at how well he knew her but shrugged instead. "I guess I wasn't his first choice," she said honestly and he'd scowled before holding out his arm to her.

"Hermione, the most beautiful girl at the ball, would you like to dance?" They'd danced in her dream for what felt like hours, in the hallway outside the ball. And right before she'd woken, he'd leaned his head down to her and whispered, "Ron's a git. You would always be first choice with me."

She knew from the other dreams she had that that had been the start of him trying to win her for himself. But she only had bits and pieces of the memories from it. She was beginning to question if her memories as Rose, or her dreams of this other woman were the true ones and she was surprised when she found herself wanting to believe the dreams. But why would Snape lie to her?

Suddenly, the room erupted in chaos as the shrieks of Bellatrix Lestrange echoed around the house. A moment later Bella came in, leading Draco and a group of Snatchers who had three people between them. "You will turn them over immediately and get out!" Bellatrix shrieked but they were paying her any mind.

"We wants our reward" one of them said and Rose turned fully to face the group who had not yet noticed her. Then her eyes landed on the sword clutched in Bella's grip.

"Get out." She hissed and all eyes turned to her. Immediately the Snatchers turned and left, without another complaint. Draco followed, motioning for the Death Eaters who moved to hand her the wands they'd collected and followed suit, leaving the three chained prisoners and Bellatrix alone.

"Where did you get this?" Bellatrix hissed and slapped the red-headed girl across the face. Rose felt anger as she looked over the group and stormed up to them, snatching the sword from Bella's grasp. Bella turned, irate but froze at the look on Rose's face.

"My Queen," she said, bowing her head, "I will discover how they got it. Just give me time…"

"You had one responsibility," Rose told her calmly. "Go see to it that my father's possession was not touched."

"But they…"

"I will deal with them. Go before I dispose of you and send someone better suited to the job in your stead," she snapped and Bella was gone in the blink of an eye.

The three standing before her, chained and wandless, looked resolutely at the floor. As if not looking up at her would save them somehow. She recognized the two red-heads easily enough. Probably because she had their family in the dungeon and knew the hair so well. The third looked to have been deformed in someway, but she recognized the curse and laughed outright.

"Oh my," she whispered, "who were we trying to hide?" The trio stiffened and shuffled closer to one another as she leveled her wand on him and undid the curse. She gasped as Harry Potter looked up at her.

"Potter," she said and staggered back as a wave of pain rushed through her skull.

"Mione?" Potter whispered and reached for her, despite the chains only to stop at the end of them. "Hermione!"

"Mione?" the others echoed but she couldn't focus on them, couldn't see anything past the rush of pain that was exploding behind her eyes. She hit the wall behind her and screamed as images began racing through her mind, some that she recognized from dreams and visions she'd been having and others she hadn't seen ever before. She clutched at her skull as they came and then just as suddenly was left alone in her own head.

Panting she looked at the group without really seeing them. She was shaking, and she lifted her hands to stare at them in absolute horror.

"Mione?" Potter whispered again, concern in his voice this time.

She lifted her head, blue eyes meeting his own green, and whispered, "Harry?"

* * *

AN: Bum Bum Bum! Review!


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Well, I wasn't going to post another chapter this soon because 1) I'm swamped with school work right now and 2) I was hoping that maybe if I spread out my updates I'd get more Reviews. But then I thought that doing that would only be punishing those of you who have Reviewed. So in honor of my lovely, wonderful, brilliant Reviews, here is your next chapter. It's my personal Favorite!

- PF

* * *

Chapter Seven

Everything was confusing. She remembered. She remembered every memory she'd ever had as Hermione up until the battle in the skies when they'd been moving Harry to the Burrow permanently. Then she remembered every memory of Rose from then until now. But she also had the false memories to contend with. The memories that Voldemort had forced into her mind and had apparently wanted her to believe. Why? Why did he go to so much effort to make her believe she was his daughter? The words Molly had told her in the dungeons flashed in her mind and she felt revolted. They couldn't be true! She couldn't really be Voldemort's daughter! But then how easily her mind had accepted this lie. How easily she had killed and tortured and…the images of the deaths that had been her own doing floated before her eyes and she realized that she was crying. She touched the tears and then finally heard the cries from those still in the room with her.

"We thought you were dead!" Ron.

"Why do you look like that? Why are you here?" Ginny.

"What have they done to you?" Harry in a voice so quiet and filled with emotion only he could manage. She focused on him, on his voice as she slowly got to her feet.

"We don't have time," she whispered, eyes widening as she realized how right she was. Bellatrix and Draco would return in moments with news of the horocrox Bellatrix had been entrusted with and they would expect the prisoners to have been dealt with in some way. She didn't have time to think, just to react. She dashed past the sword that lay on the ground, not noticing when it simply disappeared, and yanked on their chains, making them all gasp as she quickly undid them with a quiet spell and then thrust their wands into their hands.

"You have to go. If they find you here they'll call him and then I won't be able to save you!"

"We're not leaving without you," Harry told her firmly.

"We've just found you!" Ron added but she shook her head and turned to Ginny, the only one she knew would understand.

"You have to go. You have to stop him. I can't help now. You're family are in the jails and I don't have time to get them out. But I will. I have to stay. I know everything. _Everything, _Ginny, and if I leave they will know I remember and change all their plans. I can help you from here. From inside!"

Ginny nodded and reached for her but she shied away, unwilling to let her friends touch the monster she'd become. "Call Dobby," she instructed Harry who was shaking his head.

"I won't leave you! One slip and they'll kill you, Hermione."

"I won't mess up," she promised. "Call Dobby. You can't apparate out."

Harry did as instructed and as soon as the elf appeared he reached for the trio. "He's after the Elder Wand, Harry." She added, almost as an after thought. "You have to get the Horocrox and kill them all."

Harry nodded once and then the three of them disappeared, leaving her gasping and looking around desperately for a way to make it seem like she hadn't just let the prisoners go. She snapped her fingers as a thought struck her and she summoned three of her personal Death Eaters, schooling her features as they arrived.

"My Queen," they said, bowing to one knee.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and set them all on fire in Rose's trademark way. She made it quick and in seconds they were three piles of ash on the floor. She had to swallow down the bile that threatened to come up her throat and instead set her mind to the task. She yanked the chains up from where they had fallen and tossed them onto the ashes just as she heard Draco and Bellatrix come back into the house. She waved her wand over herself, erasing all signs of stress and tears and straightened her shoulders before bringing her memories of Rose to the forefront and, essentially, letting that personality have the reins again.

Draco and Bellatrix froze as they noticed the ash on the floor and Draco's eyes widened. "You killed them?" he asked, completely surprised and out of character from what she remembered as her time as Rose.

"Of course," she spat, and turned away from them as if they didn't interest her. "They had no new information and I have no room in my dungeons."

Draco's eyes never left the ash as if he couldn't believe she'd actually killed Ron and Ginny. If she had still been Rose, she would have immediately realized something was wrong with him. Then the thought struck her that she _was _Rose. No matter how much she wanted to cling to her memories as Hermione, no matter how she longed to believe that Rose was a different person. She wasn't. They were one in the same and she was responsible for the actions of both of her personas, no matter which she currently remembered being.

"They could have led us to Potter!" Bellatrix cried and Rose glared at her, the annoyance she usually held as Rose for her was replaced by sheer hatred from Hermione. No, Bellatrix she wouldn't mind torturing again. Not after she'd killed Sirius and not after the pain she'd put Harry though after killing his last bit of family.

"I tortured them. They revealed nothing. Are you suggesting you could have done better?"

Bellatrix faltered and Rose…no _Hermione_ knew she had won. "No, my Queen." Bellatrix answered.

"What of the Goblet?" she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

"In my vaults," Bellatrix answered immediately. "Right where I left it."

Hermione had an idea and acted on it, cringing as she thought how the old her would have balked at such rash decisions. She had a plan for everything back then. A well thought out plan. Rose had no such patience. "Give me the key."

Bellatrix hesitated and Hermione took a step toward her. "I do not like repeating myself, Bellatrix. You have proven you cannot handle this assignment."

Belletarix look murderous and Hermione was relieved to have the security Rose offered her as Voldemort's daughter. Not only could Bellatrix not even touch a hair on her head, she _feared _her. Bellatrix reached into the folds of her robes and withdrew the key, handing it to her and then snatching her hand back, hatred in her eyes. "I have no more use of you," Hermione declared, turning away from her and glancing at the pile of ash Draco still had not looked away from.

"Where is Severus?" Draco finally looked up at that and then shrugged. "Probably the library," he answered honestly and she saw him glance at the pile one last time before offering her his arm. "Shall we go find him?"

"No." she said, the thought of looping arms with him turning her stomach. "I'll find him later. For now, clean up this mess. I have prisoners to attend to."

Bellatrix made a move to follow but Hermione turned to glare at her. "I thought I dismissed you." Bellatrix disappeared without another word.

"What will you tell them?" Draco asked as he swished his wand over the ash. She wondered if he was concerned that she'd use killing their siblings as a form of torture, or if he was just curious.

"The truth," Hermione answered and stepped toward the door that would lead down to the dungeons.

RMR

Fred knew something was different the moment the door opened and slammed closed behind her. She stood there, at the top of the steps that would lead down to the cage, and just leaned against the door. She looked tired. More so than she had last time she visited them. But there was something else. She took a deep breath and came down the steps at such a slow pace, she seemed almost hesitant. Rose was _never _hesitant. She knew what she wanted, even when she'd doubted her memories. Hermione on the other hand…

He was to his feet before she reached the cage and the others finally seemed to notice that something was going on. He took a step toward the cage door but she'd stopped just shy of touching it. She hadn't looked at any of them either. He felt his heart rate pick up until it was galloping in his chest and he found himself taking deep desperate breaths as he watched her. Hope unlike anything he'd ever felt clawed at his throat until he wanted to gasp and cry and demand that she really be returned to him. He needed a sign. Someway of knowing if this was indeed just a tired beaten Rose, or if his Hermione was finally home. He didn't dare speak.

"Come to ask more questions?" George asked from behind him. "Or is it torture today?"

She flinched and he had his answer. He was at the cage, reaching through it toward her before he even realized what he was doing. "Hermione!" he gasped and she jerked her head up to look at him through pained blue eyes.

"Fred" she whispered but didn't step into his arms. She just stared at him as her eyes filled with tears.

"Hermione?" the others echoed behind him, all on their feet now and moving toward him. He reached for her again but she drew back and began talking so fast it took him a moment to understand what she was saying.

"Harry, Ron and Ginny were just here. The Snatchers caught them. I killed them. I mean, I pretended to kill them. So everyone thinks Ron and Ginny are dead. Dobby took them somewhere."

Harry. It had been Harry that finally brought her memories back. He wondered if Severus had put that trigger in her mind. A trigger that he knew would only happen under dire circumstances. Why else would Rose ever come in contact with Harry? But she might have bumped into any of the Weasleys. He tried not to feel jealous with the thought. It was the right thing to do. "Let us out," he whispered but she shook her head.

"I can't. I barely covered up not killing them. I had…" she gasped and he saw the tears streaming down her face. "I killed three Death Eaters in their place. There had to be evidence." He saw her shaking and jerked the bars his hands had wrapped around, desperate to get them out of his way so he could comfort her.

"They were evil, Hermione," he promised her. "They deserved it."

She shook her head. "I can't cover up releasing you. Not all at once. I have to think of anther way." She held her head in her hands and he felt sorry for the headache she surely had.

"You'll figure it out," he said nodding. "Brightest Witch and all that."

She shook her head. "If they even suspect I have my memories back they'll change everything. But if I convince them nothing's changed…"

"You can help from the inside," George finished for her. "Brilliant," he added and she looked up then, through her tear filled eyes.

"This isn't brilliance," she whispered. "It's desperation." Then her eyes turned to Molly and the look of angst that crossed her face made his heart hurt. "I'm really his daughter, aren't I?" she asked.

He turned his head to see his mother and was shocked when he saw she was sobbing. "Hermione," she gasped, "I'm so sorry, Dear." Hermione nodded and closed her eyes against the truth. She really was Voldemort's daughter. He'd was in love with Voldemort's daughter. And he didn't give a damn. He loved her still.

"Hermione, look at me" he said and she obeyed instantly. "You're _not _her. You're not Rose. You're Hermione. My beautiful, brilliant, Hermione. And you'll figure this out. Right?"

It was only when she blurred that he realized he was crying. He rubbed at his eyes stubbornly and then turned his full attention back to her. "Right?"

She nodded and he relaxed marginally. "We'll think of something." he told her, "All of us. We'll get out of this."

"I have to go," she whispered. "But I promise no harm will come to you anymore. None of you." And then she turned and hurried up the steps.

"Hermione!" he called, reaching through the bars but she was gone before he could express whatever it was he'd wanted to say. He sagged against the bars, his hands returning to wrap around them tightly.

"So," George began slowly, "Do you think being engaged to the princess of this castle will get us better beds?"

Fred couldn't laugh, not this soon, but he appreciated his brother's attempt to turn things brighter. "She remembers," Molly whispered horrified. "That poor child."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked, "Isn't this a good thing?"

"She will also remember every person she's killed, every person she's tortured, since she became Rose." Fred whispered softly. "My poor Hermione. Who wanted to free the House Elves and promote House unity in Hogwarts."

"Oh," Dean mumbled.

"She'll wish she never remembered," Luna whispered. "If her mind holds at all." It was an oddly insightful comment from Luna Lovegood, but Fred had been thinking the same thing himself. Remembering could destroy her more effectively than Voldemort ever could.

* * *

AN: There you have it. The next chapter is the full story of Rose Merope Riddle (Hermione) and what really happened. Please Review! And once again, this Chapter is dedicated to all of you who already have!

-PF


	8. Chapter 8

AN: Surprise! You're getting three chapters in one day! (because they are done and I don't see the point of them sitting on my computer waiting patiently when I could release them.) Also because I received my first flame today and it made me feel like crap and this story isn't really getting that many reviews so I'm just gonna publish as I finish until it's done. So there may be another chapter tomorrow. Might not. I'm just surprised that no one seems to really enjoy this.

Anyway, Getting off my soap box. Here's the next chapter and there's another following this. Hope you enjoy! And thank you for the friendly reviews.

-PF

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Chapter Eight

She fled to the one person she'd never trusted as Hermione. The one person she trusted completely as Rose. She found Snape in the library, just as Draco had said. When she dashed into the room, slamming the doors closed behind her and turned to face him, he set the book he'd been reading down carefully. "Ah." He said softly, his black eyes piercing through her own. "Ms. Granger."

She felt hatred for a moment, hatred for the man that had done this to her. That had caused her to become the monster Rose had been. She wanted to lay blame for every life Rose had taken squarely at his feet. But the memories he'd instilled in her as Rose kept her from lashing out at him. Rose remembered this man as a father she'd never had. "Why?" she asked, taking a step further into the room.

"To which question?" he asked calmly and she hated him more for it. How could he just look at her like that? How could remain so infuriatingly calm when she was sure she was losing her mind?

"All of them! Why change my memory? Why make me believe you had raised me? Why…" and here she chocked before forcing the words out, "Why give me to Dumbledore instead of letting me die with my mother?"

Snape sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment. "Because I need to keep you safe."

She wasn't sure which question that answered but he didn't seem finished so she collapsed into the closest chair she could find and waited. She refused to leave until he'd answered every single question she had. And she would wait him out if it took all night!

"You didn't know your mother," he told her, "and I am immensely grateful for it. She was a cruel woman. But she hadn't always been."

She stared at him, and was shocked to see emotions on his face. He looked exhausted, resigned. She wondered how long he'd been keeping this information to himself. If Dumbledore knew. Or was she about to become the only one he'd ever confided in?

"In her youth, your mother was kind." He said softly. "She rallied behind lost causes, much like you. She found herself drawn to people who were orphans, misfits, and especially those she thought lonely. She hadn't had a very kind life before Hogwarts and I often wondered if her way of dealing with it was trying to fix others, much as she tried to fix me."

"She was friends with Lilly Potter," he said calmly but Hermione saw the pain the name had caused him and the memories of Rose supplied the reason. He'd been in love with Harry's mother. Why had he imparted Rose with that information? "And the two of them were like a beacon to the broken. For a while, she dated Sirius Black but I suspect it was only because he came from a broken home and, as I said before, she was drawn to lost causes. I didn't know she'd fallen in love with him."

He took a deep breath and continued. "After Hogwarts, Sirius left her for some girl he met and it broke her heart. I'd warned her before that it would be this way but…" he trailed off and shook his head. "I think she was looking to fill that hole he'd left by the time we were recruited into the Dark Lord's army. I was so consumed with my own despair for Lilly that I didn't see the path she'd begun to follow until it was too late. She began to enjoy what the Dark Lord demanded we do. Began to seek out opportunities to hurt people."

He looked away then and she let him have a moment to compose himself. "The Dark Lord took an interest in her not long after and she quickly became his favorite. Even above Bellatrix. She became so dark, more so than Rose." She drew a sharp breath at the comparison. "And she did it on her own. No one tampered with her memory. No one poisoned her brain. It was all Anasia. And she loved the Dark Lord deeply, and loved pleasing him even more."

He finally looked back at her. "I can't say I was surprised when she told me about you. They were inseparable. But I felt fear for the first time. Fear for the child she'd bring into that horrible life. The Dark Lord was not known for sparing children and his own child." He paused for a moment, considering. "You're memories as Rose supply memories of what Draco's father did to him. The same would have been for you, but more harsh. The Dark Lord would have only accepted perfection from his child. Anything less and it would have been punished harshly."

"So you took me."

He shook his head. "No. I told Dumbledore about you. I was already working both sides by then, foolishly believing it would save the people I loved. I took down the wards that protected your home after you were born, but I never…" for the first time in her life, she thought Severus Snape might cry. He drew in a long deep breath, stealing himself against the emotions.

"She was furious with me when the Order arrived. And, though week, she refused to allow any of them to live. She killed three members of the Order before they killed her and I stood by, holding you, and watched it happen."

She heard the hatred for himself in his voice and felt her own hatred slipping away. "Who were you to her?" she asked, feeling like she knew the answer already. There was only one thing he could have been to know so much about her, to care for her and by extension her daughter so deeply.

"She was my sister." He said softly.

Hermione sat back against the seat she sat in, completely shocked. Voldemort's daughter. Snape's niece. "I thought I was Muggleborn," she said softly, almost scoffing at the irony.

"Hermione, look at me." He insisted and she obeyed. "You can not let anyone know that you have your memories back."

"Fred knows." She answered immediately. "And everyone else down there and Harry and Ginny and Ron."

"Too many." He said harshly and got to his feet to pace the small space they were in. "No one else."

She nodded, still trying to wrap her brain around her new heritage and what it meant. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

He stopped and looked down at her. "Would you have believed me?" he asked. "I made sure Dumbledore put you somewhere no one would ever look for you. And I stayed away. They would have known if I suddenly showed interest in any female child. I had to pretend I had no clue who you were."

"And my appearance? Which is true?"

"This one." He said calmly. "When they brought you to me, I undid the spell work I had put on you as a child."

"How did he find out?" she asked suddenly. "How did he know who I was?"

Snape frowned at her. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "I was so sure I'd never indicated any sort of attention toward you. Never so much as praised you. And Dumbledore would never tell. He just knew. The moment he returned to us he demanded to know if you'd been found. Then, after the disaster at the Ministry when he revealed himself, he knew you were his daughter. He said he'd felt you in the building and you were the only one that fit the appropriate age." He was right. Luna and Ginny were both younger than her.

"So he cared for me." She said sadly. "He wanted to find me."

"You are his daughter," he said softly. "But you've seen how much that means to him." She shuddered at the memories of the curses he'd flung at her. At the bruises she still carried and she was immensely grateful that Snape had saved her from an entire lifetime of that treatment. He'd even tried to save her from it now. He'd stayed with her as often as he could.

"He tried to take you from Hogwarts but Dumbledore and Harry were always his main concern. You came third. Second when Dumbledore had been dealt with." She'd seen that as Rose. Killing Harry had always come before any concern for Rose.

"You killed him," she said as she focused on his words again.

"I was asked to." He replied softly. "Dumbledore knew what Draco had been asked. He asked that I kill him instead. He was dying from contact with a horocrux already. I just did as I was asked."

She couldn't hate him for that. Couldn't hate him for anything. He was the one person who had been constant her entire life, the one person who had tried desperately to keep her safe from the moment she had been born. "Why did you change my memories then?"

"Voldemort demanded it of me. He wanted his daughter the way you should have been. If I had made any mistakes, he would have known. You know how powerful he is." She nodded and felt the dam that had been holding all of her emotions in finally break.

"Severus," she whispered sadly and flung herself at him, not caring that he'd never so much as pat her shoulder as Hermione. He opened his arms to her and held her close as she sobbed into his chest. "I've killed so many," she whispered. "I tortured…" she couldn't get any more words out as she clung to her uncle.

"I know," he whispered sadly, stroking her back as he held her close. "So have I." In all the world, of all the people they knew, no one would ever understand what they had been through. No one else would ever understand.

"You have to keep the charade up, Hermione." He said firmly once she'd cried herself out.

"I can't keep hurting people," she whispered, rubbing at her eyes.

"You must." He said sharply, pulling her away to look her in the eye. "I've done it for years now. It's gets easier." She wanted to be appalled with him but she couldn't. Not with someone who had had to kill people and deal with it for years just to keep her and Harry and the Order safe. No wonder the emotionless mask he wore was so perfect.

"How do you stay sane?" she asked softly. He continued to stare at her.

"Because you and Harry were safe."

She closed her eyes, letting that sink in. "I can't kill people," she repeated again. "I can't do that."

"Then we'll deal with it when the time comes. For now, pretend Hermione. Or it will cost you your life. Deal with the regret, the grief later. Now you have to survive and keep as many around you alive as you can."

She nodded, pulling back from him and taking a deep breath. "Okay."

"Good." He kissed the top of her head and drew back, the mask she was so familiar with from her years at Hogwarts sliding firmly back into place as he backed up and sat back down in his chair. He picked the book up and she took that as her signal to leave him be. She made it to the door when he added, softly, "And for Merlin's sake stay away from the Ginger."

She stopped at the door and glanced back at him. "Do you say that because its safer or because you don't like the idea of me with Fred."

He didn't even look up at her as he replied, "Both."

RMR

The next day the impossible happened. Before Hermione had even managed to secure her façade into place, Voldemort returned. He swept into the main ballroom without any kind of entrance and surprised her by appearing in front of her. "It's mine," he told her earnestly as she quickly covered her surprise by pulling Rose to the forefront.

"What exactly is yours, Father?" she asked as others began arriving in their room. From within his robe he drew what she assumed was the Elder Wand and smiled at her.

"The Elder Wand," he said, almost proudly. "Lying in the cold dead grasp of that old fool." There was only one fool he hated as much as he implied with that single word. Dumbledore.

"He owned the Elder Wand?" she asked curiously, forcing herself not to shrink under his gaze or react at all. Rose wouldn't have. She deserved to be here. Deserved to talk to him as an equal. Even if he had been cruel to her the last few times he'd returned.

He ignored her, instead turning to show it off to all who served him and had gathered in the room. They ooed and ahhed appropriately and she bit back the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she sought out Snape who met her gaze for a moment before focusing on Voldemort.

"Rose has news of her own, My Lord," he said casually and Voldemort turned to her with surprise.

"Potter?" he asked hopefully and she shook her head. "Then what use are you?" he spat and she straightened against the fear that spread through her.

"I have injured him in a way I thought you would approve."

"Oh?" he asked, eyeing her.

"His companions are dead."

Voldemort studied her for a moment and then grinned wickedly. "He is alone." He said and she nodded. "Good. He will be easier to kill." He turned back to those gathered and raised his hands, "Tonight a celebration." He clapped his hands together and, what could only have been a family of Muggles, appeared in the middle of the room. Bound and blindfolded but not gagged.

"Please," the father of the group begged, "please. Let the children go." And there were children. Three of them. She felt sick as the room around them laughed and made sure her features looked as bored as Snape's. But Voldemort turned to her, holding out his hand and she forced herself to take it without hesitation.

"I thought you would like to start us off tonight," he told her. "There's an entire town filled with them not far from the grave site and we'll be visiting them all after dinner." There were shouts from the Death Eater but Hermione didn't join in. Instead she forced herself to consider the Muggles as Voldemort placed his hands on her shoulders, obviously waiting eagerly for whatever new form of torture she could come up with. Her eyes darted to Snape but he didn't acknowledge her as the room grew silent again.

She took a deep breath and called Rose firmly to the front of her mind, forcing all memories of Hermione from her as harshly as she could. She just hoped this worked. Rose smirked as she took a step toward the father and lowered his blindfold, allowing him to see everything that was happening around him. "Hello," she leered watching the fear that entered his eyes as he looked first at her, then at her father.

"Please," he repeated. "Let my children go."

"But not your wife?" she asked, pointing her wand at the woman.

"Please!" he cried and she laughed at him.

"Oh now the concern for her. I see." She killed her with the killing curse silently, the body just sagging to the floor.

"Mommy?" one of the children asked and before their father could answer him she killed them, the green light hitting each of them in turn before she turned her attention to the father who simply stared at his dead children, horrified beyond belief.

"Don't look so stunned," she told him calmly, "this is always the fate of cattle." And then she killed him too using her trademark fire that slowly licked up him until he was nothing but ash beside the bodies of his dead children.

Voldemort laughed behind her and as he disappeared his Death Eaters followed, leaving only Snape and Rose who was staring at the bodies of the children.

"Rose?" he asked quietly and when she looked up at him he drew in a sharp breath. "It was merciful. The Dark Lord and the others would have tortured the children and done worse to the wife. You did what yo could."

She didn't reply in anyway. Just stared blankly at him and, as he gazed at the empty expression on his nieces face, he made the decision. "Come with me." He instructed and took her hand, pulling her from the ballroom and to her own bedroom.

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AN: Next Chapter should be up with this one so continue on! By the way, I'm aware that the characters are out of character but considering nothing like this happened in the books I'm trying to imagine how those characters would have acted. In Chapter ten I feel like I'm finally able to maybe bring the characters closer to their book counterparts. Please review. Flames are welcome so long as they are helpful. If you hate it please just stop reading it and find a story by someone else you like more.

-PF


	9. Chapter 9

AN: As promised, the final chapter for today. Enjoy!

-PF

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Chapter Nine:

The door to the dungeons slammed open and they were shocked as they watched Wormtail's lifeless body fall through to thud against the stairs. Snape stepped over him, his robe snapping around him as he hurried to their cell and unlocked the cage door. "You don't have much time," he told them as he held the door open for them. "Everyone is gone and this is your only chance."

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, not really believing that they would finally be leaving the dungeon after so many months. "Now!" Snape hissed and they moved, filing out of the cell slowly to stand on the other side. He handed Molly and George wands and spoke quickly. "Get outside and apparate. You can't within the walls but there you're safe. Have that house elf Potter is so fond of find you and take you to him."

"What about Hermione?" Fred demanded and Snape glared at him for a long moment before answering.

"Stay behind if you care."

"Bring her home," Molly told Fred and then hurried up the steps with the others. George paused beside his brother before nodding and following after their mother.

"Come with me." Snape ordered and Fred followed, grateful for his long legs as Snape's pace was almost running. The halls were dark and empty, just as Snape had promised and, as they passed a window overlooking the lawn, he saw the others apparate out. Good. They were safe.

They reached the end of a rather long hallway and stopped in front of a door. Snape didn't move to open it so Fred reached around him but froze when Snape grabbed his hand. "Don't." He said calmly. "Whatever you do, do not address her as Hermione."

"Why not?" Fred asked, searching Snape's face for an answer. The Professor didn't give him one. Instead he opened the door into a dark room that was barely lit by candles. Hermione stood silhouetted against the window, gazing out at the grounds. He moved to her but Snape again stepped in front of him and shook his head.

"Wait," he said in his drawing voice. Then in a voice he'd never heard from the Professor, Snape addressed Hermione. "Rose. Come away from the window." Hermione ignored him. "The others are gone," he told her calmly. Still no reaction. "And I've brought the imbecile."

"Hey!" Fred protested but this at least made her turn to face them. She looked dead. Her eyes were lifeless, her hands hung limply by her side, and her face was void of any emotion.

"H…" he started but Snape shot him a look and he quickly amended it. "Honey?" She turned her face toward him but he was positive she wasn't seeing him. "What happened?" he asked Snape.

"The Dark Lord had her kill a Muggle family." He said softly. "There were children."

"There are always children." Hermione said quietly. But she didn't sound like Hermione. "So many children. No matter the age. They were all children."

He felt fear for her grip at his heart as he took another step toward her. "Rose," Snape called and she turned her face toward him. "You have to go. Let the boy take you away from here."

"Where?" she asked in the same dead tone.

"To Potter," Snape said. "You can help."

Her face remained emotionless. She didn't nod, didn't shake her head. But she didn't step away from Fred when he stepped forward and took her hand. "Do you have a wand?" he asked her quietly. She withdrew it and handed it to him almost mechanically. He looked to Snape who had backed toward the door.

"They won't be back until morning and they'll sleep most of the day away. If she's to act, she must do it before then. I will have to tell him that she remembers and helped you all escape." Snape instructed. She still made no indication that anyone was even home upstairs. He had to fix this. But only once he was sure they were safe.

He pulled her toward the door and Snape met his eye. "If harm befalls my niece," he told him quietly, dangerously, "I will hold you personally responsible."

"Sir" Fred nodded and then tried to pull her out of the room but she didn't move. He didn't have time for this! He yanked her to him and pulled her up into his arms before taking off, running as fast as he could while holding her until he was outside and breathing the fresh night air for the first time in months. He didn't allow himself to enjoy it. Instead, he took one last look at the dark Manor and apparted.

RMR

When Dobby first appeared at Shell Cottage with Molly, George, Luna and Dean Thomas Harry had nearly wept for joy. He loved house elves! Dobby most of all! Ginny, Ron and Bill were out the door before anyone could speak and running toward their mother who took them all in one big hug while crying deeply. They were starved. Molly had lost tons of weight and the others weren't much more than skin and bones. They all had black circles rimming their eyes and hollow checks and matted hair but they all looked relieved to finally be free. George smiled at them but kept looking over his shoulder and it was then that Harry realized Fred wasn't with them. Nor was Hermione for that matter.

He reached George just as Fluer came out and ushered everyone inside. He and George stayed where they were. "What happened?" Harry asked George, handing him the muffin Harry had been munching on. George practically ate it in one gulp and then cleared his throat to speak. "Snape got us out."

Harry's eyes widened but George just shrugged. "Ask mum. She'll tell you everything. But he got us out."

There was another pop as Dobby appeared again, this time with Fred who was holding the Hermione they had seen at Draco's Manor. George sighed in relief and hurried to his brother who spoke to him in low warning tones. Fred caught Harry's eye and abruptly stopped talking. Harry turned his attention fully to Hermione as Fred and George headed toward him, Fred still cradling her.

She looked dead. And yet, she was still breathing. Still blinking. She looked around her with unseeing eyes and Harry staggered toward her. "What did they do to her?"

"Not now, Harry." Fred said softly and Harry gawked at him.

"Where do you get off?" Harry demanded and reached for Hermione only to have George step firmly between them.

"Let off, Harry."

"Bugger off, George!" Harry shoved past him and reached for Hermione again only to catch the warning on Fred's face. What the hell was going on?

"Let off, Harry." George said again quietly and Fred continued toward the cottage. Harry followed hot on his heels, not liking being in the dark about anything, especially concerning the woman he thought of as his sister. A woman he thought he'd lost until the day at the Manor.

Molly opened the door for them and Harry suspected they may have been watching from the windows. No one said a word as Fred carried Hermione into the house, up the stairs, and into a side bedroom, slamming the door closed with his foot. Then finally, Ron broke the silence.

"What happened to Hermione? And why's Fred carrying her?"

"It's a long story," Molly told them honestly, settling down in front of the fire Fleur had got going once they had begun arriving. "I think we all need something to eat before it's told." They contained their questions until everyone was comfortable and everyone had something to eat and drink before Molly began to tell them a story that would have their hearts breaking for the couple up stairs.

RMR

Fred didn't care if every member of his family had just seen him carrying Hermione into a bedroom. He didn't care what they would think or how anyone would feel. He needed to fix her. Needed to undo what Voldemort had so carelessly done.

He set her down gently on the bed and then kneeled before her, taking her hands. "Hermione." He said softly and for the first time her eyes focused on him, then on their hands and she immediately tried to pull them away. "No." he said firmly and she stopped struggling to get away. "You can shut everyone else out but not me." He told her firmly, unaware that he was repeating the same words his brother had told him when he'd first thought she'd died.

She didn't say anything and he drew in a deep breath. "Fine. You don't need to say anything. You just need to listen." He waited a moment, searching for the right words, and then began.

"I've loved you from the first moment you stepped foot into the Yule Ball holding Victor's arm. I'd always liked you. You were brilliant even back then and, though I'll be honest, it was annoying how you got onto us about our pranks all the time, I still enjoyed your company. But that night was the night I realized I loved you and that I couldn't stand by anymore and just let Ron have you. He didn't deserve you. Neither did I but I told myself I would treat you better than he ever could."

"I fell in love with you over and over again that summer we spent with Sirius. Every day, every smile, every laugh I fell deeper. And when you told me you felt the same, I felt lighter than I've ever felt before. I fell in love with your strength when Umbridge took over the school, your determination to teach everyone how to defend themselves even when our own teachers were letting you down. Your tears for those she hurt that you couldn't protect and your anger at someone who would do such a thing. I loved you deeper every moment we were apart and counted the seconds until I could sneak back into Hogwarts just to be with you. I was already in love with you long before you offered yourself to me that final year and when you agreed to marry me you made me the happiest man in the whole world."

"When you didn't return that night, a part of me died, Hermione." He waited as she continued to stare at him and then continued on, pouring his emotions out to her. "I've not been the same since. And when I saw you that day in front of the shop, do you know what I felt?"

"Repulsed?" she whispered, her eyes darting away. He snatched her chin and forced her to look at him.

"Elated. Because I knew. I _knew _you were alive and I _knew _whatever they had done to you, we would find away around it. I would have you back. So I suffered in that cell with my brother and mother, unwilling to give up on you. Believing, even then, that you could overcome anything. And you did." There were tears in her eyes but he didn't stop. "I'm not giving up now." He told her firmly. "Not now that I finally have you back. I waited too long for this, and no one, not even you, will keep me from my fiancé ever again," and then he crushed his lips to hers.

He hadn't really expected her to respond, had figured that maybe all of this was just to get it off his chest. But when her lips moved against his after a moment he felt everything, his fears his doubts his anger, all of it melt away until it was just him and his fiancé. He kissed her like the starved man that he was, standing to lean over her until she pulled him down on top of her. "I love you," he whispered as he tore his lips away from hers to kiss down her neck. She gasped into him as he captured her lips again and she tore at his clothes, desperate to remove them. Just when he'd almost completely lost himself to passion, to the emotions behind finally having the woman meant to be his wife again, he heard her whispered, "I love you too."

RMR

She sat silently in front of the vanity in the room, staring at the blue eyes and black hair of the girl that stared back at her. A soft smile touched her lips for a moment when Fred mumbled in his sleep behind her and rolled over. He'd get up soon, she knew. It was like he could sense when she wasn't in bed with him anymore. Her eyes turned back to those in the mirror and she frowned. It was Rose that stared back at her. Not Hermione. Rose who quirked an eyebrow at her when she did. Slowly, Hermione lifted a hand and ran it through her black straight tresses. She watched the mirror do the same and sighed heavily. No, she was Rose. This was what she was supposed to look like had Snape not altered her. She should have known mother nature wouldn't have been that cruel to a child.

"I like it," Fred said quietly from behind her and she jumped, eyes widening as he leaned down to wrap his arms around her stomach and rest his head on her shoulder. "Makes you look all…"

"Evil?" she whispered.

"Mysterious." He answered for her. "Blokes like mysterious, mind you."

She felt her lips curve into a small smile as he pecked her cheek. "And the blue. I love blue. Have I ever told you that?"

"You don't miss the old me?"

"So what? You're hairs different and you have different color eyes. Birds pay for that sort of thing all the time, you know. You just got it for free! And its permanent! Which, I'm personally happy about because I make a bit at the shop but I'd rather not have to keep paying for you to color your hair if you decided you liked it."

He was rambling and she knew it but she appreciated his attempt to return things to normal. Her eyes turned back to the mirror and focused on his hands that were clasped about her waist. "How can you stand to touch me?"

"Easily." He answered without pause. "You're beautiful. Come back to bed and I'll prove it."

"I mean after everything she…I did?"

He sighed and met her eyes in the mirror. "You're my Hermione still. You were different then. Not you."

"I am still her." She argued. "She's still me. I'm still that evil person, Fred!"

"You're right." She blinked back at him, startled. "You and Rose are the same. The difference is Rose didn't have Hermione. Without Hermione, she can be a bit…"

"Evil." She repeated.

"Eccentric. I like that word better. She was that way because she didn't know who Hermione is. You know who Rose is. You have her and her memories locked in here." He tapped her head. "The question is, who are you going to be with them? Because the memories don't matter. What you do with them does."

She stared at his reflection, quietly contemplating what he'd said. "When did you get so wise?" she whispered.

"When I lost the woman I loved." He answered back seriously. She closed her eyes and leaned back against him.

"I can't change what Rose did." She said quietly. "But I'd like to change things now. To make it right."

"There's my girl," he whispered and kissed her hair. He reached around his neck to the necklace that she'd barely noticed the night before and took it off, handing it to her. She opened her palm to see her engagement ring sitting there. He'd kept it around his neck this whole time. Even in the dungeons? She looked up at him as he smiled down at her and said "And I think we should start by helping Harry take down your dear old dad."

Her eyes hardened at the thought and her hand tightened around the ring. He'd taken this from her. Her friends, her life, the man she was going to marry, her future. She'd have to kill her father. And it didn't bother her at all. He was evil, and he'd been evil to her when he'd tricked her into being his daughter. It was time they fought back. With a purpose to focus on, she could push aside everything else. For now. She carefully took the ring off the chain and slipped it onto her finger, loving the way it felt now that it was finally where it belonged. She stood, grabbed Fred's hand and said, "I think we should start with a shower."

He laughed for the first time in what felt like years. "Yea, you do stink," he told her playfully knowing full well he was the one who'd been locked in a dungeon for months. "Shower, food, _then _Harry." He told her, pulling her toward the bathroom that was connected to their room.

"Agreed."

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AN: So that was my first attempt to kinda bring them back to the people they once were. It's gonna be a while before they're normal because, he was in a dungeon and she was killing people. But I'd like to think that reuniting with loved ones that support you completely might help. Maybe not. I kinda feel like Ron's gonna be slightly/extremely upset about this. We'll see! Hope you enjoyed! On to the next chapter!


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